Pharmaceutical negligence causes psychiatric injury

The story

Our client was given the wrong medication by the pharmacy who prepared her dosette box, which led to her suffering a seizure. The experience left her with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The details

Medical negligence paralegal Mahira Butt acted for a client whose complex medical background meant she had to take medication frequently. In this case, the defendant pharmacy, who prepared our her dosette box* supplied the wrong medication. (* A ‘dosette box’ is a container with multiple compartments for different days of the week and times of the day to help people with taking their medicines.)

As a result of taking the wrong medication, our client suffered an adverse reaction, which led to her having a seizure. She had no previous history of seizures and was admitted to hospital for a few days, where it was discovered that the wrong medication had been dispensed.

The impact

Although she recovered from her physical injuries, our client developed a specific fear that a similar mistake could happen again. Consequently, she relied on her family to check her medications and suffered from flashbacks relating to the hospital admission.

How we helped

We instructed a psychiatric expert, who confirmed our client had developed PTSD because of the negligence.

The defendants admitted that the wrong medication should not have been dispensed, but they continuously disputed the severity of our client’s psychological injury and denied any psychological harm was linked to the negligent event.

To get the defendants to admit liability and to settle the claim, we provided our evidence, including our psychiatric report. However, they argued that our client was impacted psychologically by other, personal matters, so we agreed that they would send further questions to our psychiatric expert to narrow down the issues. However, our expert’s opinion remained unchanged.

Mahira successfully settled the claim following a negotiated settlement. As part of the claim for compensation, we included the cost for private treatment to resolve her psychiatric injuries.

Mahira comments:

“It is paramount that careful reviews of medication are carried out to prevent pharmaceutical mistakes like this and to make sure patients are safeguarded.”

What our client said

“My experience with Shoosmiths, in particular my solicitor Mahira Butt, has been excellent. I always felt informed, and that she cared about my case. They went above and beyond, which got me a great result to the case (a result which I wanted, in fact better). She always had what result I wanted on her mind and is an excellent solicitor. I would highly recommend Shoosmiths, and especially Mahira, and would definitely use them again. She is caring, experienced, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with. Mahira did everything she could possibly do to make me feel at ease. I would like to say thank you to Shoosmiths and Mahira, for everything they did to get me a great outcome.”

Disclaimer

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is recommended that specific professional advice is sought before acting on any of the information given. © Shoosmiths LLP 2025