Sepsis Misdiagnosis

Most patients do not have any background in medicine and even one’s that do, usually blindly rely on a doctor’s diagnosis and suggested treatment when confronted with a medical problem.  But what happens when the doctors get it wrong?  What happens when they miss a diagnosis and fail to provide necessary treatment?
    
The unfortunate instance of a woman in Jacksonville, Florida illustrates what can happen.  The woman went to the hospital (where she coincidentally works as a nurse) suffering from fever, aches, and a racing heart but was sent away with only pain medications.  Her attorney’s allege that the doctors failed to notice a textbook case of sepsis. Sepsis is a system-wide infection that if not timely treated can result in massive infection and often death.
 
Six-hours later, a test result came back indicating a strep infection so the woman was called back to the hospital.  Ultimately, the woman’s flesh began to die and she had to have her legs removed in order to save her life.
    
If there were signs of sepsis when the woman first went to the hospital, immediate treatment could have saved her legs.  Not having made this initial diagnosis, the woman’s condition worsened over several hours to a point beyond full recovery.  At the very least, the woman was able to keep her life.
    
Whether or not this woman’s condition could have been diagnosed in her initial visit will be worked out in court.  However, her unfortunate situation provides a lesson to the rest of us that misdiagnosis happens more frequently then we may think and can have life altering consequences.

To learn more about how these cases work, I encourage you to explore my website http://www.oginski-law.com. If you have legal questions, and I urge you to pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I welcome your call.