The potential compensation from Valsartan lawsuits is still unknown, as none of the lawsuits has settled or come to a verdict, yet. However, the medical complications caused by the high blood pressure medication Valsartan are severe enough to warrant substantial compensatory damages for:
- Medical expenses, both from the past and anticipated in the future,
- Lost wages and other professional setbacks,
- Reduced ability to earn a living in the future,
- Pain and suffering, and
- Loss of companionship suffered by the victim’s family.
Additionally, the negligent oversight that led to these Valsartan lawsuits could warrant punitive damages, as well.
1. Compensatory damages for Valsartan lawsuits
People who get hurt because someone else acted negligently deserve to be compensated for their losses. The extent of a victim’s losses is known as their compensatory damages.
These compensatory damages are meant to put the victim back in the position they were in, before they suffered from Valsartan’s side effects. While the law cannot turn back time to before the injuries, it can require the defendants to pay compensation for the losses they have caused. This compensation includes far more than just the medical expenses you have incurred to treat the medical complications and any cancer that Valsartan caused: It is also meant to cover for all of the other setbacks that you experienced at the hands of the drug.
1.1 Past and future medical expenses
One of the most important components of the compensatory damages that victims can recover in a Valsartan lawsuit covers their medical expenses.
People who have been hurt by Valsartan are likely to suffer life-altering and long-term injuries, like:
- Kidney cancer,
- Liver damage or cancer,
- Colon cancer,
- Rectal cancer, or
- Stomach cancer.
These are all serious medical conditions that are likely to costs tens of thousands of dollars to properly treat. Worse, those costs are likely to come for years after the initial diagnosis, often after the statute of limitations forces you to file a Valsartan lawsuit.
Personal injury law, however, allows you to recover medical expenses that are reasonably anticipated to accrue in the future. For victims of Valsartan, recovering compensation for future care is especially important.
1.2 Lost wages or business
The compensatory damages available in a Valsartan lawsuit are not restricted to just medical expenses. Victims of Valsartan can also receive compensation for the wages they have lost during their recovery.
For victims who do not earn salaried income, but who are paid on a commission or through a business they own, compensation can take the form of lost business.
1.3 Reduced earning capacity
Victims who do not earn an income when they learn they have developed cancer as a result of Valsartan are not left with nothing. The law allows these victims to recover compensation for any reduction in their ability to earn an income, in the future. This can take the form of a reduced life expectancy from the medical condition caused by Valsartan, or the form of an altered career trajectory because of the effects of Valsartan.
1.4 Compensation for pain and suffering
Cancer caused by Valsartan – especially the treatment for that cancer – can be an extremely painful ordeal to go through. Because it was caused by the makers of Valsartan, the law recognizes that you deserve to be compensated for it. Therefore, your compensatory damages in a Valsartan lawsuit include compensation for your pain and your suffering, even though putting a dollar amount on these internal experiences is a notoriously difficult thing to do.
Compensation for your physical pain aims to provide financial help for all of the pain and physical discomfort that Valsartan caused. For people who have developed cancer after taking Valsartan, this can include compensation for:
- Pain caused by the medical condition, itself,
- Physical discomfort during any surgeries or medical procedures that are undertaken to treat the cancer, and
- Chemotherapy.
Compensation for your suffering is more complicated because it aims to financially cover the mental anguish and emotional distress associated with your injuries and the debilitation that they cause. For victims of Valsartan, this often includes compensation for:
- Mental and non-physical trauma associated with chemotherapy,
- Anguish caused by a potentially shortened life expectancy due to the cancer, and
- Emotional difficulties that come with the knowledge that they will struggle to do what they enjoyed doing in the future.
1.5 A family’s loss of consortium
Victims of Valsartan are not the only ones who suffer. Their families also struggle to cope with the injuries that the drug has caused. That is why a victim’s compensatory damages can include financial help for their loved ones and family members, as well.
2. Wrongful death claims
Many Valsartan lawsuits are filed on behalf of a victim who has succumbed to the cancer that the drug caused. The compensatory damages that are available in these wrongful death claims is different from those available in lawsuits filed by the victim, directly. Instead of aiming to compensate the victim, wrongful death claims aim to provide financial assistance to the victim’s loved ones.
Each state allows wrongful death claims to recover different sets of damages. Most include compensation for:
- Funeral expenses,
- Lost financial support that would have been provided by the victim, and
- The family’ loss of consortium.
3. Punitive damages
Valsartan lawsuits have also pursued punitive damages, in addition to compensatory damages. Punitive damages aim to punish the defendant for especially wrongful conduct by awarding extra compensation to victims.
No Valsartan lawsuit has reached a conclusion, so it is unclear if juries are willing to award punitive damages to victims, yet. However, many other mass tort claims involving pharmaceutical companies cutting corners and putting people at risk have led to substantial awards of punitive damages, in the past.