Damages Awarded

Last month, your doctor diagnosed you with psoriasis, a painfully itchy skin condition. To help with your symptoms, he prescribed you with a steroidal topical cream to be used twice a day. He did mention that for the first few days the cream may or may not produce a slight tingling sensation. The doctor told you that you shouldn’t worry because it shouldn’t last long, and if it persisted, to just rub the lotion in to dissipate it.

Tingling Sensation? Yeah, He Was Wrong!

The first time you put the cream on, it not only tingled—it burned. You rubbed it in as quickly as you could, remembering what the doctor said, and it only got worse. You spent 10 minutes blowing on your arms in order for the cream to dry faster. Eventually, it did and the pain subsided. The second time you put it on, the burning was less intense but still present. You were hoping that you would eventually get used to it, because even after the first application, you noticed your skin was red, but not itchy. You continued the applications for three days, gritting your teeth as you applied it to your body and ignoring the little red splotches. You hadn’t needed to scratch since that first day, and you were feeling pretty good. The fourth day, however, was a completely different story.

You awoke that day—after the sixth application—to find little tiny droplets of blood on your sheets. Your arms, neck and chest were extremely sore, and felt like they were on fire. When you walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror, you almost screamed. You had tiny blisters all over your neck, chest, arms, and legs. Basically, every inch of skin where you had applied lotion was bright red, painful to the touch, and either had these blisters on them or what looked like bleeding bruises.

You immediately went to the emergency room thinking that perhaps you were having an allergic reaction. After several tests and a lot of pain medication, the doctors determined that the marks were severe second-degree burns. After telling them about the cream, they concluded that the lotion was actually burning through the top layers of your skin. This is the reason why the itching stopped—because your skin was literally being killed off, layer by layer.

How could this have happened? Your doctor prescribed the cream to you, why didn’t he know the risks? Although the cream itself had no indication or warning, you’re still stuck in the hospital waiting for your skin to heal.

Your family suggests that you get a lawyer, but what could he do? What kind of justice could you get if you hired an attorney?

Seeking Damages for Your Drug Pain

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating medications and making sure that they don’t harm the people who use and take them. However, some types of drugs—only one brand has to be checked and as long as other brands use a similar formula they don’t necessarily need the approval of the FDA—have been known to slip through the regulation process. In addition, recently approved drugs can still show signs of defect once distributed to the general public since they have a broader pool for reactions.

Unfortunately for consumers and patients, these drugs can cause a lot of harm before the FDA realizes that they are dangerous. In order to bring attention to the problem, as well as receive compensation for your painful and distressing experience, you have the right to file a legal claim against the manufacturer of that drug. Within your claim, you will be eligible to receive punitive or compensatory damages. The following is a brief overview:

• Compensatory damages: Compensatory damages are damages used to reimburse victims for any financial loss associated with the defective drug. This includes medical costs, loss of employment due to injury, future treatment costs (both physical and mental), and adjustment costs for potential decreases of financial possibilities due to injuries.
• Punitive damages: Punitive damages are intended more to punish defendants than help the plaintiff’s injuries. These types of damages aren’t generally awarded in personal injury cases as the settlement is lumped into compensatory damages. However, punitive damages not only make the guilty party pay for his harmful or reckless neglect, it also brings the drug’s issue into the spotlight.

Pursuing a Claim

When you decide to pursue a defective drug claim you’re not only fighting for yourself and your experiences—you’re fighting for an entire group of people (present and future) who have been or will be prescribed the same drug, and suffer the same consequences. Contact us today if you feel that you have a case against a defective drug.

Our knowledge, experience, and perseverance can help you achieve the confidence and support you need, to get the damages you deserve. Just think, someone else could have had the same reaction you did, but lacked the courage and knowledge to pursue a claim. The result? More people suffered, including you. Be the one to stand up to the drug, and prevent future injuries.