A recent study has found that when children are admitted to the hospital, the course of medical treatment they receive typically involves the administration of multiple medications. Too often these medications interact with each other and cause serious side-effects and injuries in the young patients. But what was even more alarming about the study’s results is the way medical personnel often ignore the alarm systems put in place which are supposed to alert them to possible drug interactions.

The study was conducted by doctors from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, utilizing data from 12 months of medical records provided by 43 children’s hospitals from around the country. The research team discovered that of the approximately half million children who were hospitalized during that year, almost half were given medication combinations which have the potential for harmful side-effects when interacted with each other.

Potential dangerous side effects from the combinations of medications include breathing problems, sedation, bleeding issues, and a reduction in iron absorption. Another serious side effect is the unknown reduction of effectiveness that one drug may have on another, as it may potentially eradicate the healing powers the medication has which a child needs to get better.

Of all the children’s medical data that was used for the study, 49 percent were given dangerous combinations of drugs. The two most common categories prescribed were opioid painkillers and antibiotics.

Hospitals do have safeguards in check to monitor for potential drug interactions in patients. These electronic alerts ring an alarm when a patient is receiving a medication which can be harmful when interacted with another medication the patient may be receiving. However, a real concern to the researchers of this study was how medical personnel do not pay attention to these alarms. The reason for this is there are so many drugs that do interact, these alarms are constantly going off, and doctors are left suffering from what the study calls “alert fatigue.”

If your child has suffered a serious illness or injury because he or she was given an incorrect or dangerous combination of medications, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to discuss your case and legal options.