What recourse if any?

[kaboco]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina

My mentally ill son recently moved into a new group home and town. During his first visit to his new psychiatrist the PA advised that he be taken off depicote and put on lamictal. He (the PA) suggested that the depicote was the contributor to my sons severe mood swings and temper outbursts. So the weaning off the depicote and the weaning onto the lamictal began a little over a month ago. With in two weeks a very severe rash displayed over the entire chest, stomach and sides of my son. I pointed this out to his caregiver and questioned whether this might be a reaction to the lamictal. She took him to the doctor who said "no" that is was probably poinson ivy and gave him an ointment for it. After a week using the ointment the rash was no better, and appeared to have actually become more severe. The caregiver again spoke her concern to the doctor who prescribed prednisone.
A week later (Monday morning) my son had what appeared to be a seizure and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital. I was called and went to the Emergency room where I was told they did an EEG that came back negative for seizure activity and that they were going to release him.
I voiced my concern to the ER Dr., telling him that this is the second time someone has witnessed him seizing and that an EEG came back negative. I mean, if we don't know what's causing these episodes , shouldn't we try to find out? He told he he was going to make some phone calls and would get back to me. Meanwhile, while waiting in the exam room my son began having intermittent spasms or jerks in his arms and legs. When the nurse on duty came in I mentioned this to her and she said he is "probably just cold and shivering, or perhaps drank to much coffee that morning, or might just be nervous". She let us know that the Dr. had decided to admit my son to the hospital for further tests. I felt better about this. We waited a while for them to take him upstairs and get him into an assigned hospital room. I noticed it was getting late and I needed to run pick up my younger children at school. I let the nurse know that I would be back in about an hour.

I stopped by my house to let my younger children off and heard the phone ringing. Ran inside and answered the phone. It was the charge nurse from the floor my son had been assigned. She said my son had just had a major seizure and they were taking him to intensive care.

By the time I got back to the hospital he was sleeping soundly. I spoke at length with the nurse. She told me he began seizing so bad that it took every staff member from that wing to hold him down, i guess while they gave him a shot of dilantin. I told this nurse about the one in ER who had suggested his 'jerks' were from nervousness. She couldn't believe what I was telling me. She said that any nurse should know that he was in seizure and that they could have staved off this severe seizure had action been taking earlier.
This seizure was so bad he almost bit his tongue off. It is still, four days later, black and blue and very sore.

I got up in the middle of the night and googled the drug lamictal and found that some of the side effects were a severe rash (stevens- johnson syndrome) which can result in liver failure AND seizure disorder.

I took my findings early the next morning to the neurologist assigned to my sons case. His response was "Nobody mentioned to me he had a rash!!! This could be very dangerous!" He immediately stopped the lamictal. Later that day a doctor came in the room and discussed with me the chain of events. He said he believed that basically what has occurred was iatrogenic. I asked what that meant and he said "doctor induced incident", being that the PA not only put him on the lamictal which can cause seizures but treated the side effect rash (which can cause seizures) as poison ivy and put him on prednisone, which... can cause seizures.

I'm not sure if there will be permanent damage. Does seizure cause permanent damage. Is there legal recourse I can take on behalf of my son? He is on disability and medicaid, so this is not a financial matter. But this does seem to be mal practice. Not only on the part of the PA that put him on the lamictal and mistreated the rash, but also the ER nurse that ignored the symptoms of another seizure coming on.

Any advice would be appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[ecmst12]

I think you should speak to a lawyer who can evaluate the strength of your claim. Seizures CAN cause permanent damage but not always, and it is hard to measure. Every seizure someone has makes them more susceptible to have another one in the future...but even with this, he might never have another seizure once his meds are corrected, and it's impossible to predict. Seizure can also cause decreased cognitive functioning but not always permanently, and since his functioning is already low, it might be hard to measure. I agree it appears some negligence occurred. The question the lawyer will look at more is what were the damages, and would the value of the damages be high enough to justify the high cost of litigating a malpractice suit.

[kaboco]

He had another seizure Tuesday morning of this week and ended up back in the hospital, where they (the neurologist) decided to do a lumbar puncture, which I am told (today) that it came back negative. The doctor increased his dosage of dilantin as well as depakote. He told me that my son has non epileptic seizures and epileptic seizures. I don't know why these have started all the sudden at his age of 30. I just wonder if putting him on the lamictal and then ignoring the rash has caused something that he will have to suffer through from now on. ie the seizure disorder