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Have you sued your prescriber?


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Hi all. I have been doing some research and am contacting lawyers for medical malpractice. My psychiatrist never once told me of the dangers, or the possibility of horrendous withdrawal from many years of high dose Xanax. I am afraid I’ve become brain damaged, and I am unable to work, or even function daily. My question is have you thought of suing do to the damage that has been done, and if it is the same case with you the fact that you were never advised about the complications and possibility of horrendous withdrawal? I’ve contacted a benzo specialist who is going to help me stabilize, but I know that I have to get off of them to heal, but from my experience and what I’m reading here it will be very difficult and dangerous. Let me know what you think, or if you have thought about it, or done it.
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No in fact I did the opposite

 

I forgave my doctor because she’s very kind. I just don’t think many doctors know about the withdrawals

 

Forgiving has helped not try to figure out who to blame and be angry at someone

 

I just want to heal at this point so going through the trouble of suing sounded like an awful endeavor while going through the healing process

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Ill never forgive the Drs that did this to me , not ever . Part of that anger is what keeps me going . Everyone is different . Many people have wanted to or tried to sue and it never gets anywhere .

These Dr's know , the younger ones I see now know all about it and they still don't want to talk about it .

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Many of us have looked into it. It is VERY difficult to get a lawyer to take your case because the medication instructions from the pharmacy say not to use past 2 weeks...even though our doctors prescribe them for months and years. And so MANY doctors will say that it is "proper" treatment for "anxiety, or sleep," or whatever that you are hard pressed to find a "professional" that will disagree as an expert witness for you. Unless they were prescribing SUPER high doses or something. But just regular old prescriptions...nope.

It DOES totally SUCK because they do not inform us of the possible nightmares that we face, and it's not fair at all. We are supposed to trust them that they know what they are doing!

I will be sooooo happy when the US catches up with the UK on this....because over there, you can sue the doctor.

If enough lawyers will fight for us, then we may start seeing a change, but we have to be able to convince the legal system that the doctor committed malpractice, which is very hard to do.

One day I hope!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mine were found guilty of unprofessionalism and negligence for prescribing me the meds since they were GP’s. They got a warning but not a fine. It helped validate my experience although being fined would have been better.
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Mine were found guilty of unprofessionalism and negligence for prescribing me the meds since they were GP’s. They got a warning but not a fine. It helped validate my experience although being fined would have been better.

 

Was this done with a lawyer ? Or through the state board of licensing?

 

Even them getting a warning is worth it's weight in gold because if they do it again they will be fined.

 

How did you go about doing this? What country are you in? If someone wants to, this could be worth pursuing just to get it attention and to possibly get it in the media if enough people do it to get to the almighty, ultimate goal of starting to put an end to the irresponsible and reckless prescribing of benzos. And, of course to prevent a physician from harming another person.

 

Doctors are more cautious now to prescribe opioids. Why can't we get to this same type of thing with benzos? Why can't "The benzo crisis" be a thing like the "opioid crises" is? Don't people deserve to know the truth about benzos? "The truth" STILL isn't clearly in the FDA prescribing info. Even with it's Sept 2020 update. I mean it's better, but it still does not explain the dangers of benzos nearly as well as it should. The benzodiazepine FDA warning still paints this overall  "if you take with opioids with benzos" or "only if you abuse them" sort of picture and we know it's BS.

 

I'm not saying this is something I would do personally. I'm still too sick to pursue anything like this right now if I even chose to do so. But, many others would like to see the person who prescribed this med without properly informing them of the side effects get some kind of punishment, even if just a warning. It makes that physician think twice about doing it again, which in turn can prevent harming another individual.

 

I can tell you for sure that no one warned me that I would be pacing in my own living room, or that I would be unable to even sit still and watch TV, or escape to anywhere from the sheer torture of akathasia from a benzo.

 

And, ...... what I am about to say now is NOT DIRECTED TOWARDS YOU IN ANY WAY TRYING2BHOPEFUL. This is for someone else on this forum, or for anyone who feels that I was not really injured by benzos. If someone reads my signature and has something to say about it, that person will not win with me. I will not lay down here and have someone tell me that I did not take benzos enough or that I do not belong on the benzo buddie forum because I should "meet a certain criteria" to even be on this forum. Or that "only people who took them for a long time or daily are the ones who are truly injured" kind of bull crap. You know "the thing that bothers me about protracted withdrawal" ..... This person knows who they are.

 

I have hesitated to post on the forum lately because of this individual because I did not feel like being attacked and stressed out by this person, but not no more. No one is going to devalue the suffering I've went through with this.

 

This forum should be a place where we come for help. Not somewhere we come to get ridiculed and judged. I can get that kind of mistreatment from a cruel family member or from a doctor that's not willing to listen. We come to this forum for the very reason to get away from that kind of mistreatment.

 

This is not a place where we come to for someone to judge whether or not we have taken benzos long enough or frequently enough to be truly injured. How is that helpful?

 

My God. I had akathasia and MANY other symptoms too. Physical and mental. This is NOT my "normal anxiety" that I had pre benzos. I didn't really even have anxiety pre benzo. I took them to sleep during a period of grief from a death of a family member.

 

If you think this forum "allows people on here that haven't taken the drug frequently enough or long enough" for your liking to be benzo injured, then go start your own forum for special benzo injured people who have to had taken them a certain length of time or so many per day, or who suffered in the certain way that you think fits the criteria of a benzo harmed person.

 

- Miss Fortitude (my name is FORTITUDE for a reason)

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Listen to Geraldine Burns’ podcast “Benzo Awareness.” She just had a lawyer on with experience litigating these cases.
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Can’t, my Doctor retired abruptly (no surprise) about 7 or 8 years ago way before i came off the meds.  He more than likely destroyed the lives of other patients and realized he messed up and that his practice was maul.
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[22...]

Very hard to sue drs in Canada and you would have to spend an awful lot of your own money to do it.

 

Supreme Court has capped pain & suffering at $350,000.

However, that doesn't include the loss of income.

 

It would be very hard to win a case like this in Canada in my view, as you will need to have medical experts on your side, which is next to impossible. There are only a few drs in Canada that know about the dangers of benzos.

 

If you have a lot of $ then you might be able to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here is a problem.  This type of suit would take a fair amount of lawyers time and your money.  This isn't an auto accident suite where the lawyer works for free and gets a contingency percentage upon settlement.  The lawyer will likely want money up front and money as the lawsuit progresses.  It will likely be a long lawsuit.

 

Another problem is the fact that it is going to be emotionally taxing for you, and the opposition will have access to all of your pysch and medical records to question you about.

 

A third problem is that very likely the doctor was following a common medical practice in their prescribing you the medication.

 

Unless the doctor did something very egregious or blatantly wrong, it would be a difficult case.

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