Wrong Prescription Leads to Serious Accident

Our lawyers handled a case that looked at  first like it was caused by a negligent driver, but turned out to have  been the fault of a negligent pharmacist.

Our client was a retired  bank employee sitting on the steps of St. Augustine Cathedral in  Bridgeport, waiting to attend 12:10 Mass. Suddenly, a car on Washington  Avenue in front of the church started weaving from side to side, crossed  the center lines, then jumped onto the curb, over the sidewalk, through  the hedge row and onto the cathedral steps, crushing the man's foot,  one-third of which had to be amputated.

While losing control of  the wheel is usually caused by driver negligence, this time it was not.  The driver suffered from epilepsy. When he went to his drugstore, his  prescription for Dilantin (used to control his seizures) was mistakenly  filled with Diazide (used to treat high blood pressure and swelling due  to excess body water).

As a result of being without his  medication, the driver had a seizure behind the wheel and lost control.  We were able to obtain a six-figure settlement for our client.