Prescription Administered Despite Documented Drug Allergy

Case Overview

This case involves a female patient who presented to the hospital for a ventral hernia repair. Her doctors opted to use a Kugel mesh. Following her procedure, the patient was prescribed Percocet for pain, despite clear documentation of an allergy to the medication on her preoperative medical clearance note. Before she was anesthetized, the general surgeon on her case specifically asked the patient if she had any allergies and she verbally confirmed that it was on her chart. A few months prior, the patient had a sensitization to Percocet that produced itchiness and dry skin for a three-week duration. During this hospital admission, the patient developed an extremely pruritic dermatological reaction that produced dry scaly skin over her entire body.

Questions to the General Surgery expert and their responses

Was this a breach in the standard of care?

If what the patient claims is true, then this is without a doubt a breach in care. For the physician to confirm a drug allergy and then to go ahead and prescribe it for postoperative pain is absurd.

About the expert

This expert is a board certified General surgeon with additional fellowship training in minimally invasive surgical techniques. He was trained at the University of California Davis School of Medicine for residency and at Johns Hopkins for fellowship. He is the Director of a surgical hernia center at a prestigious medical university in Maryland and treats a significant amount of cancer patients.