I was prescribed two drugs that are known to cause seizures when taken together. I have no history of seizures. My doctor is seeing more patients than she can handle. She has become sloppy and she almost killed me. My family watched in horror last night while I convulsed on the floor. I was released from the hospital and I am very angry. Is there anything that I can do to prevent this woman from doing this to other people?

The drugs are Amitriptyline and Tramadol.

Thanks in advance!

Consult with a personal injury attorney for any residual effects these drugs may have on you and a med mal attorney for possible medical malpractice.

Why did she prescribe these for you? Ami is an older drug that's been on the market for many years now and tramadol is for mild to moderate pain.

The Ami is for my migraines and insomnia and the Tramadol is for a recent knee injury.

I took ami but only at night many years ago for migraines. Did the doctor ask you what other meds you were on?

Anyone can sue for anything these days. The question is whether you can win anything from this. Is there any permanent damage? If not, you most likely will not win.

Also, what you experienced was what is known as an adverse reaction. This does not happen to everyone and the doctor had no way to know that this would, indeed, happen to you.

It's unfortunate, and I'm sorry you had to go through this, but this is not something that an attorney would even blink an eye at. It would cost more to prosecute than you would win, if you win anything.

@ Twinkiedooted: The doctor did not ask what drugs I was on, but since she prescribed them both to me I feel that she should have taken a minute to look at my chart.

@J_9 That's what I figured.

Thanks for the input.

She should have known better and advised you to watch out for the adverse effects. You still can sue if you keep experiencing seizures after stopping these drugs. She still is at fault here and can be held to account. Keep all rx bottles, receipts, etc. including the hospital records in case this happens again to you even after you quit this drug combo. And then consult with an attorney.

Unless there is direct cause and effect then you probably have no case. As J_9 stated this is a potential adverse reaction not a guaranteed one.

Who filled the prescriptions? A pharmacist is supposed to advise you of potential adverse reactions. This may have been included in with the prescriptions, did you read the documents provided?

I go along with J_9 here. The only way you stand a chance here is if your history matches the profile of those who have had an adverse reaction. If not, how would the doctor know you might have the reaction?

Most malpractice attorneys will give you a free consult. So get another opinion. But I think you will get the answer J_9 gave you, that you probably won't get an attorney to take the case.

The issue is that often drugs that "may" or "could" cause adverse issues are prescribed, Thus the reason for lists of warnings on the prescription when you get them. Often it is a comparing the risk to the need of the treatment.

If this combination is never used together, then yes you can sue the doctor and perhaps the drug store that gave you both. As long as both were current prescriptions and both were suppose to be taken at this time.

From what I can find from researching online, it looks like the two drugs are not to be used together because together they cause seratonin syndrome which includes seizures and coma. The two drugs were filled at separate pharmacies so they had no way of warning me. I blame the doctor for this.

You can blame the doctor, but do you have any permanent damage from this incident? This is what an attorney is going to look at. This is what a jury would look at.

From looking at my medical journals here at the hospital, seizures are more likely, but not guaranteed. Again, while you may have had this reaction, many other people do not.

Would you sue a doctor if you had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic you had never been prescribed before? It's the same principle. The doctor did not know this reaction would occur with you.

Actually that is the job of the pharmacist and why you need to go to the same pharmacist. They are the ones that are experts on medications and possible interactions.

Does not sound like there was a case of interactions problems here. More like a reaction to one of the medication.

You need to blame yourself for going to two different pharmacies with two different drugs. At the same time there may be reactions to many different drugs but some are major, minor or etc.. That is up to your pharmacist to decide. That is why it is important for one pharmacist to know everything your on.

You might want to pass the buck here but you need to take responsibility in your own health.

Why were they filled by two separate pharmacists? As Joe is saying this is one of the responsibilities of a pharmacist. If you went to separate ones, this will be brought up by the defense attorney if this ever got to trial.

If your goal is to stop the doctor from doing this again, doctors are licensed by the state. You can report this to the state which licensing board.

I agree with Joe and Scott about the pharmacies. This will be brought up and your case will most likely get dismissed, if you ever get a case to court in the first place.

Rather than going after the doctor you need to report this adverse effect to the drug companies to support their warnings about combining the two medications. This could cause what is called a black box warning which will protect other patients in the future no matter what doctor they go to.

The drugs were filled at different pharmacies because the doctors office has their own pharmacy. They are very overpriced so I do not tend to fill my scripts there. On this occasion though, when I called and requested a stronger drug for my knee(I had previously been using motrin) the doctor called my script in for me at her pharmacy. That was the Tramadol.

My Amitriptyline is an ongoing prescription that I fill every month at another pharmacy.

I really appreciate all of your replies. I will probably not pursue any type of legal action here.