Among the many potential mistakes that a medical professional can make is a medication error. They could prescribe the wrong medication for your condition or for yourself based on your own personal characteristics.
This is a serious error, and you as a patient may have no idea it has been made until after the fact. You’re not a drug expert. You’re not expected to be. But this type of mistake can harm you in two critical ways.
You don’t get the treatment you need
First and foremost, this type of error means that you don’t get the treatment you do need. Maybe you needed that medication so that you could heal or combat a disease. If you get something else, your disease may continue to get worse or you may have to continue dealing with symptoms and issues that should have been treated. This is detrimental to your health, and, in some cases, it can be fatal if the drug would have saved your life.
The drug can have a negative impact
Additionally, the medication that you are given could have a negative impact. Perhaps you are allergic to it. Perhaps it has unintended consequences or interacts poorly with other medications. If you get something that you were never meant to take, it can actively harm you as you use it, and that is also a potential source of injury that is traced back to that initial error by your doctor.
If this does happen to you and the problems come to light afterward, make sure you know what legal steps you can take.