Practice Areas

Defendants may include not only the prescribing physicians, but hospitals, pharmacists, home health agencies, and nurses.

Because gentamicin is typically given by IV infusion, and to very sick people, it is usually administered in the hospital or through a home health agency. With some frequency, the prescribing physician relies entirely on the hospital or home health agency pharmacist to calculate the dose and duration of gentamicin treatment. We have deposed defendant hospital pharmacists whose knowledge of gentamicin is appalling. Nurses also make errors in preparing or administering gentamicin. In one case, a night nurse prepared the IV infusion. Instead of adding 13 milliliters of concentrated gentamicin to the IV bag, the nurse added 13 vials, each containing 40 milliliters of concentrated gentamicin to the IV bag. Not surprisingly, this one infusion led to a profound vestibulopathy. Home infusion companies also make errors. A home infusion nurse might assure the patient that the patient’s bouncing vision and lack of equilibrium will return to normal after the patient completes another two weeks of gentamicin infusion. In a later deposition, he/she could state that he/she did not want to bother the prescribing physician with these minor complaints. If only the physician, and not the home infusion company, was sued, and the SOL has passed, there will be a very big, empty chair beside defense counsel at trial.

On the other hand, truthful nurses or pharmacists might be great witnesses against a prescribing physician. Physicians have been known to ignore a pharmacist’s advice or a home health nurse’s documented plea to discontinue the gentamicin infusion because the patient began to vomit and couldn’t walk the room.