Another interesting post yesterday, this time from the WSJ health blog

A man taking several prescription drugs passes out at the wheel, drives off the road and hits and kills a 10-year-old boy. Can the boy’s mother sue the doctor who prescribed the drugs?

Yes, Massachusetts’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday, the Boston Globe reports. The mother’s lawyers allege that the doc failed to warn his patient about the side effects of the medications and the potential danger of driving while taking them.

The patient was 75 years old and had emphysema, high blood pressure and metastatic lung cancer. He had prescriptions from his doctor for oxycodone, Zaroxolyn, prednisone, Flomax, potassium, Paxil, oxazepam, and furosemide — drugs whose side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, and fainting, according to the Globe. He reported no side effects in the months before his accident, however.

I guess it would be one thing if “innocent until proven guilty” applied in these sorts of cases. But I suspect a lawyer will try to get a jury to simply doubt that the doctor warned the patient.

So what will this mean? Will doctors be tempted not to prescribe meds for a patient due to concerns of what the patient might do and the liability trail that has now been blazed back to his door? Will this mean another level of paperwork that documents notification of all possible systems and side-effects? Maybe video recordings in the office to provide evidence?

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