What To Do If You Suspect a Drug Made You Sick

She picked up the prescription at a pharmacy on Common Street on a Thursday. By the following Tuesday she was at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital with a rash spreading across her arms and a fever the ER staff took seriously. The attending physician asked what medications she was taking. The antibiotic she'd started four days earlier was the answer. It went in the chart. It was the beginning of a paper trail she didn't know she was building.

Drug reactions happen. Some are mild and expected. Others are serious, permanent, or life-threatening — and some are the result of a manufacturer failing to disclose known risks, a pharmacy compounding a dose incorrectly, or a prescriber missing a contraindication that should have changed the entire treatment plan. The Louisiana Products Liability Act (Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:2800.51 et seq.) gives patients a legal path when a drug causes harm beyond what was disclosed. What you do in the days and weeks after a suspected drug reaction determines whether that path stays open.

Step One: Get Medical Attention and Tell the Doctor Everything

If you are having a serious reaction — difficulty breathing, chest pain, severe rash, swelling of the face or throat, loss of consciousness — call 911 or go directly to CHRISTUS Ochsner Lake Area Hospital or Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. Do not wait to see if symptoms resolve.

For less acute symptoms — persistent nausea, unusual fatigue, abnormal lab results, new pain that started after beginning a new medication — call your prescribing physician or see a doctor within 24 to 48 hours. The timing matters legally. Medical records that document the onset of symptoms close in time to starting a new drug are the most persuasive evidence in a pharmaceutical injury claim.

Tell the treating physician or nurse every medication you are currently taking, including over-the-counter drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Be specific about when you started each one. Ask the doctor directly whether your symptoms could be caused or worsened by any of your current medications. Whatever they say, ask for it to be documented in the visit notes.

Step Two: Preserve the Physical Evidence

Do not throw away the medication bottle. Do not discard the packaging, the insert, or the receipt. These items establish the lot number, manufacture date, dispensing pharmacy, and the warnings that were included with the drug when you received it. In litigation, the lot number can be used to trace whether other units from the same production batch had documented problems.

We explain how fault percentages and deadlines work after a Louisiana injury in our 2026 Tort Reform Survival Guide.

Photograph the bottle label clearly — front and back. Photograph the insert if it came with the package. If the pharmacy gave you a printed information sheet with the prescription, keep that too. Write down the name of the drug, the dosage, the prescribing physician, the pharmacy where you filled it, and the date you first took it.

If you still have pills remaining, do not flush them. Keep them sealed. An expert may need to test the actual batch you received to determine whether it was manufactured to specification.

Keep every document related to the drug and to your subsequent medical care in one place. Medical bills, insurance EOBs, lab results, imaging reports, pharmacy records, and correspondence with your insurance company are all potentially relevant.

Step Three: Report to the FDA

The FDA's MedWatch program accepts adverse drug reaction reports from consumers and healthcare providers at fda.gov/safety/medwatch. Filing a report is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and does not initiate a lawsuit or any legal proceeding against you.

What it does do: creates a federal safety record, adds your case to the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System database, and may contribute to a safety signal that triggers regulatory review or recall. If multiple patients across the country report the same reaction to the same drug lot, that pattern is the kind of evidence that supports a design defect or failure-to-warn claim against the manufacturer.

Your report also protects future patients. Drug safety signals are built from individual reports. One report may not move the needle. Fifty reports with similar findings absolutely can.

Step Four: Do Not Contact the Manufacturer Directly Without an Attorney

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have dedicated adverse event teams. They will take your report. They will ask questions about your medical history, your other medications, and your lifestyle. They will be polite. They are building a defense file, not trying to help you.

Do not give a recorded statement to any pharmaceutical company representative, their insurance carrier, or any third party they direct you to contact. Do not accept any payment, product replacement, or goodwill gesture that requires you to sign a release. A release, even for a small amount, permanently bars your injury claim.

Contact a Louisiana personal injury attorney who handles pharmaceutical cases before you respond to any outreach from the manufacturer. Most pharmaceutical injury attorneys handle these cases on contingency — no money upfront, no fee unless there is a recovery.

How Louisiana's 51% Comparative Fault Rule Applies to Drug Cases

Louisiana's modified comparative fault rule under Civil Code Article 2323 applies to pharmaceutical injury claims. Manufacturers will argue that you bear partial responsibility — that you failed to read the warning label, that you took the drug with food or alcohol against instructions, that you did not disclose a contraindicated medical condition to your prescriber.

The math matters. If a jury finds your damages are $200,000 but assigns you 30% fault for not disclosing a prior kidney condition that the label warned about, you recover $140,000. If the manufacturer pushes your fault above 51%, you recover nothing.

This is why documentation of your compliance with the prescribing instructions matters. If you took the drug exactly as directed, at the prescribed dose, at the prescribed times, with the prescribed dietary restrictions, say so clearly to every medical provider you see. That compliance history goes in the medical record, and it counters the manufacturer's comparative fault argument.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if a drug caused my symptoms in Louisiana?

A treating physician evaluates the connection between a drug and your symptoms based on timing, your medical history, and the known adverse event profile of the medication. A pharmacist can explain whether your symptoms match documented reactions in the drug's prescribing information. Build a timeline: when the drug was started, when symptoms appeared, and how symptoms changed when the drug was stopped or adjusted. That timeline is what physicians and attorneys use to establish causation.

Should I stop taking the drug immediately if I think it harmed me?

Call your doctor first. Abruptly stopping some medications — blood pressure drugs, antidepressants, corticosteroids, seizure medications — can cause serious rebound effects or withdrawal. Your prescribing physician needs to guide any change to your medication regimen. Document the call and the physician's instructions. Your health is the first priority; changes to treatment should be medically supervised, not self-managed.

Who can I sue if a drug made me sick in Louisiana?

The drug manufacturer is the primary defendant under Louisiana's Products Liability Act. If a compounding pharmacy prepared the drug incorrectly, the pharmacy may face separate liability. If the prescribing physician failed to account for a known contraindication or failed to warn you of significant risks given your specific medical history, a medical malpractice claim may apply alongside the product liability claim. An attorney can assess which theories are viable based on your specific facts.

What is MedWatch and should I file a report?

MedWatch is the FDA's adverse event reporting system, accessible at fda.gov/safety/medwatch. Consumers and healthcare providers can file reports for free. Filing does not initiate legal proceedings. It creates a federal safety record and adds your case to the Adverse Event Reporting System, which the FDA uses to identify safety signals. Your report may contribute to a pattern that triggers regulatory review. It takes about fifteen minutes and is worth doing regardless of whether you pursue a legal claim.

How long do I have to file a drug injury lawsuit in Louisiana?

One year from the date of injury under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 3492, plus a three-year peremptive period under the LPLA running from the date of injury. In drug cases where harm is gradual or latent, determining when the prescriptive period began can itself be a legal question. Do not wait to consult an attorney. The one-year window is firm, and missing it extinguishes the claim with very limited exceptions.

Legal Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Louisiana pharmaceutical injury law has a lot of moving parts, and the facts of every case are different. Statutes, regulations, and case law also change over time. Reading this does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you were harmed by a medication in Lake Charles or Calcasieu Parish, talk to a licensed Louisiana personal injury attorney as soon as you can. The one-year prescriptive period for personal injury claims is strictly enforced.