In medical practice whenever a medication is prescribed for a specific condition to keep it under control, the physician and patient can be lulled into a sense of complacency. Such cases, at times, can pose serious medico-legal issues and lead the physician to be booked for a case of medical malpractice. A 66-year-old woman had a history of depression, stroke, thyroid, emphysema, congestive heart failure, and bipolar disorder . She was being maintained on a number of medications by her HMO who was an internist. In June 2016 the patient’s HMO referred her to a gastroenterologist, Dr.
G , who prescribed metoclopramide for reflux disease . Dr. G noted some improvement in the patient condition and in April 2017 prescribed the patient a 3-month regimen of metoclopramide. On July 2017 , the patient began her treatment under Dr. IM , an internist, because her original internist had quit…
