Welcome to our guide to making an overdose compensation claim. The impact of overdoses of medication can be life-changing, and if caused by a third party, they can be traumatic. From paracetamol to opioids like morphine, too high of a dose of drugs can poison us.
In this guide, we’ll explain what responsibilities medical professionals have to keep you safe, what qualifies for an overdose compensation claim and how you can make yours.
You may find that you’d like to talk to someone about your experience and the action you’d like to take. If so, our advisors are available on 0800 408 7825. They offer free advice at any time, on any day you’re ready.
Injury caused by an overdose compensation
Select a Section
- A Guide To Calculate Compensation For An Injury Caused By An Overdose
- Overdose Injuries
- Financial Loss From Medical Negligence
- What Is An Overdose?
- Seek Out Care Claims
- Lawyers Value Compensation Settlements
- Case Study: £65,000 Compensation For An Injury Caused By An Overdose
- Overdose Injury Compensation Calculation Estimates
- No Win No Fee Medical Negligence Lawyers For Overdose Compensation Claim
- Uncover Specialist Medical Negligence Lawyers For Overdose Compensation Claim
- Quick Contacts
- More Reads On Overdose Compensation Claim
A Guide To Calculate Compensation For An Injury Caused By An Overdose
Medical negligence claims can be taxing, especially when you’ve been the victim of third party negligence that caused psychological harm. That’s why this guide aims to explain the process for overdose compensation claims as clearly as possible.
After giving you an understanding of what qualifies for overdose injuries (which can be numerous both psychologically and physiologically), we’ll follow with what financial impact the overdose may have had on you, what you could claim and how.
We also advise No Win No Fee solicitors and that choosing the right solicitor for you and your circumstances are crucial.
If at any point you have a query or would like to make a claim, simply get in touch with our team on the number at the top of this page.
Overdose Injuries
The three factors that structure a medical negligence claim are:
- Duty of care (What was the third party supposed to do to take care of you?)
- Breach of duty (What did they do/not do that prevented you from receiving appropriate care?)
- Suffering (What did you suffer as a result of their negligence?)
Doctors
The General Medical Council advises that registered doctors must be trustworthy because they manage patients’ health and lives.
A doctor must:
- Put the patient’s care first.
- Keep their skills up-to-date and work within their competency.
- Make an appropriate response if a patient is at risk of (or is) experiencing compromised safety, dignity or comfort.
- Respect patients through confidentiality, privacy and consideration.
- Work with patients to understand their concerns, provide correct and intelligible information, and support them to care for their health.
- Work with other medical professionals if it’s in the patient’s interest.
- Act with integrity and be truthful.
- Not discriminate, whether against colleagues or patients.
- Uphold patients’ and the public’s trust in the medical profession and not abuse that trust.
A breach of any of the above can result in doctors being required to justify their actions and decisions and being held accountable personally.
Pharmacists
Pharmacy professionals are held to 9 standards outlined by the General Pharmaceutical Council, who approve and accredit pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.
Pharmacists must:
- Put the patient’s care first.
- Where necessary, work with patients, other pharmacists and medical and legal professionals.
- Communicate with patients and professionals in a way they can understand.
- Keep their skills up-to-date and work within their competency.
- Judge with professional sense.
- Behave professionally.
- Respect patients through confidentiality, privacy and consideration.
- Voice concerns and communicates effectively when errors or problems occur.
- Practice effective leadership.
If you feel that your pharmacist or medical professional breached any of the above, leading you to overdose, it is advisable to discuss this with your medical negligence solicitor. Your solicitor should look into circumstances with you.
Often with overdoses of prescribed medication, a patient’s health is already suffering, meaning that defendants may attempt to claim that overdose effects are pre-existing conditions. However, with evidence, this can be successfully refuted.
If you’re concerned about your pre-existing condition(s) or breaches of duty that may have occurred, speak with our advice team on the number at the top of the page. They’ll talk with you for free, and you’re under no obligation to receive services from our panel of medical negligence lawyers.
Financial Loss From Medical Negligence
The negative impact of an overdose can be not only physiological and psychological but also financial. Your solicitor should advise you to consider what you have lost monetarily due to the incident.
Due to medical negligence causing your injuries, you may have:
- Paid for travel to and from medical appointments or therapy.
- Taken leave from work with no pay.
- Employed extra help such as a cleaner or gardener.
- Lost entitlement to your work bonus.
There are other ways you may have suffered financially, and our panel of lawyers will be able to advise you on what costs you can recover. You must have evidence of financial loss. If you’re wondering whether you have appropriate evidence or would like to discuss what exactly was financially lost for you, call our clinical negligence claims team on the number above or send a message in the chatbox.
What Is An Overdose?
The NHS states that, of all causes of poisoning, overdoses are the most common. The severity of overdose symptoms depends on how strong the medication is and how much was taken. Symptoms can be any of the below:
- Vomiting
- Stomach cramps
- High temperature
- Breathing difficulties
- Unclear vision
- Mental confusion
- Loss of consciousness
- Fatality (in extreme cases)
There are many more harmful effects on health after an overdose, and a medical professional will be able to advise you on your symptoms.
Overdoses are not only harmful to health but could cause an accident at work resulting in an injured colleague, a road traffic accident resulting in damage to or loss of vehicle or accidents in public places. In these cases, the resulting incident may have added stress or further injury.
Some of the most commonly prescribed drugs involved in overdoses are paracetamol, aspirin, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), beta-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, benzodiazepines and opioids. You must be aware of the medication that caused the overdose and why it happened.
Did a doctor prescribe too high of a dose? Did they mix medicines that shouldn’t be taken together? Did your pharmacist neglect to remedy what they should have considered as a dangerous dosage?
For help understanding where a duty of care was breached, seek advice from your medical negligence solicitor. Our panel of medical negligence lawyers can help with your claim but, if you’d like some free, no-obligation advice instead, call us on the number above.
Seek Out Care Claim
Depending on the severity of the overdose you experienced, you may have required extra help. If you paid for that help yourself, you might be entitled to compensation for injuries caused by medication overdose.
Have you suffered psychologically as a consequence of the overdose? If so, did you pay for therapeutic services? Did you render any help from family members, friends, or professionals for childcare, cleaning, cooking, or washing? Are you still receiving support? Perhaps you may require additional care for some time, potentially years?
If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of the above, you deserve to recover the costs. Your medical negligence lawyer should detail with you what you have needed as a result of medical negligence and how you can claim it back.
Lawyers Value Compensation Settlements
To make a medical negligence claim, you’ll need to have supporting medical evidence. After experiencing an overdose, please visit your doctor for an assessment as soon as possible if you were not admitted to hospital. This assessment allows your medical negligence solicitor to build your case.
During your case, an independent medical expert will produce another report for you. Its purpose is to prove your claim and support your solicitor’s valuation of what you are entitled to.
There are two types of compensation you could receive after a successful case.
- General Damages
- Special Damages
General damages are in place to compensate you for pain, mental suffering and changes in your life quality due to the overdose.
Special damages are financial losses you have accrued due to medical negligence, whether past or ongoing. Special damages include care claims (as we have mentioned in the section above), travel costs (such as travel between hospital/doctors surgery and home) and anything else that has caused you financial harm.
It is of tantamount importance that you retain any evidence you can to strengthen your case. Some examples are:
- Bus/train tickets
- Medical bills
- Counselling bills
- Receipts
If you’re unable to work due to the event’s impact, you may be able to receive higher levels of compensation, though this will require convincing evidence.
If you don’t yet have a medical negligence solicitor or are hoping to find out more about your potential case before you make a claim, call our team of advisors on the number at the top of the page. Our team is ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide you with free guidance.
Case Study: £65,000 Compensation For An Injury Caused By An Overdose
Miss Chopra was an HR Director and suffered from depression for several years before seeking help from her doctor. Her doctor prescribed antidepressants and put Miss Chopra on a waiting list for therapy.
A few weeks after beginning her medication course, she began to feel more depressed than usual and often had suicidal thoughts. She decided to pay for her therapy to avoid waiting. Her therapist was qualified and experienced and noticed some minor improvement in Miss Chopra’s mental health over the three weeks she saw her.
Miss Chopra’s surgery was too busy to book her in for a face-to-face follow-up, so her doctor conducted a telephone appointment with her. Hearing that Miss Chopra had had suicidal thoughts, the doctor advised that they’d increase her prescription dosage. This was despite Miss Chopra commenting that she had begun to feel better.
Days after Miss Chopra started using the increased dosage, she felt agitated and couldn’t stop shaking. She collapsed. Her eyes were uncontrollably moving when her partner found her, so they called an ambulance.
She was diagnosed with severe toxicosis. Her physical health suffered, and her mental health deteriorated to the extent that she found it difficult to get out of bed. Her partner helped her use the NHS complaints procedure, but she was offered too little to cover expenses and her sick pay from work was due to run out. They contacted a medical negligence solicitor.
Using medical proof from her admission to A&E and prescriptions, Miss Chopra’s solicitor argued that the dosage she had been given was too high and was a misprescription.
The defendant argued that the dosage would have been safer had Miss Chopra taken the medication at the advised times. However, they could not prove (from medical notes taken after Miss Chopra’s telephone appointment) that the doctor had warned her of the dangers of taking the medication too soon after a previous dose.
The defendant also argued that any mental anguish was pre-existing. However, Miss Chopra’s therapist supported the solicitor’s argument that she had early mental recovery signs before overdosing. The doctor also neglected to listen to Miss Chopra when she said she was beginning to feel a little better.
Miss Chopra was awarded £65,000. £11,350 of this was special damages, with £53,650 in general damages, which accounted for mental harm as well as physical.
| Type of Special Damages: | Includes: | How Much?: |
|---|---|---|
| Travel Expenses | To and from appointments/treatment | For a taxi home from hospital: £30 |
| Medications/Prescriptions | Prescriptions, treatment, physiotherapy, walking aids, etc. | For her emergency therapy sessions following the incident: £300 |
| Additional Care | Professional care at home, from family, childcare, etc. | For her partner taking care of her: £450 |
| Future Loss | Loss of Earnings, future loss of earnings, potential future care. | Partner’s loss of earnings: £2,800 Loss of earnings: £3,450 Loss of work bonus: £4,050 |
| Cleaning/Gardening: | Cleaning, gardening, areas that requires consistent attention. | For cleaning: £150 For gardening: £120 |
Miss Patel’s is fictional as is her case, though our experience of handling claims and how they’re valued has influenced the illustration.
Overdose Injury Compensation Calculation Estimates
Though Miss Patel could secure £65,000 to cover her experience and expenses, your case will be individual to you and could be more or less. However, there is often substantial overdose injury compensation.
If you would like an overdose compensation claim estimate, our panel of medical negligence lawyers will help. If you’re not yet sure on the next best steps, you can get free advice with no obligation from our advice team by using the chatbox on this page.
No Win No Fee Medical Negligence Lawyers For Overdose Compensation Claim
Conditional Fee Agreements (also known as No Win No Fee agreements) were created for those who can’t afford to protect themselves in a court case after a workplace accident, road traffic accident or accidents in a public place. If you have suffered mentally or physically due to medical negligence, you could make a claim.
If you lose your case under No Win No Fee, you will not have to pay your medical negligence lawyer fees. If you win, you must pay your solicitor a small fee. However, it is capped, and only intended to cover costs.
While your claim is ongoing, you will not be expected to pay anything, and there are also no upfront payments required.
Uncover Specialist Medical Negligence Lawyers For Overdose Compensation Claim
We pride ourselves that our panel of lawyers is made up of quality No Win No Fee professionals. We understand how getting the right medical negligence solicitor for you can mean differences in the amount you settle for.
If the lawyer you speak with seems professional at first but then doesn’t respond to calls or emails, you should question how highly they prioritise you. You should also take into consideration any reviews they have online and how trustworthy they seem. If they want to settle for less than you’re comfortable with, it may be time to seek a second opinion.
Our advisors can give you free advice with no obligation for you to use our services if you call the number below or use our chatbox.
Quick Contacts
There are three different ways to get in touch with our trained advisors 24/7:
- Call us for free on 0800 408 7825.
- Write to us.
- Make use of our live chat feature in the corner of the screen.
More Reads On Overdose Compensation Claim
How to Claim Third Party not Admitting Liability – Comprehensive guide on how you can claim even though the third party won’t admit liability.
How Can We Lower The Risk Of Public Accident Claims In The UK? – Our guide to lowering the risk of public accident claims.
Members of the Public Accident Claims Hot Spots – Our guide on where the most common accidents occur in the UK.
The Duties of a Doctor Registered with the General Medical Council – GMC duty of care guidelines for doctors.
Symptoms – NHS symptoms of and information on overdoses and poisoning.
Poisoning, Emergency Treatment – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advice on overdosing and poisoning.
Thank you for taking the time to read our guide to making an overdose compensation claim.
Guide by RV
Edited by LC/II