When Are Infections an Indication of Medical Malpractice?
By the time they start elementary school, children know that germs are everywhere. Parents remind them to wash their hands before eating, so that the germs that are on their hands do not get inside their bodies. When they visit a family with a new baby, parents often say to their young children who are eager to meet their newest friend, “Don’t kiss the baby. You don’t want to give him your germs.” Preventing contact with disease-causing microorganisms should be a no-brainer in the healthcare profession. Despite this, preventable exposure to pathogens makes many patients’ conditions worse. Iatrogenic infections, those that result from medical treatment, where the patient would not have otherwise been exposed, can occur when healthcare providers do not follow proper infection control procedures. Infection control is part of the standard of care in inpatient and outpatient medical treatments; therefore, failure to observe infection control procedures can count as negligence on the part of healthcare providers. If an iatrogenic infection turned a routine medical procedure into a nightmare, contact a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice attorney.
How Can You Tell If an Infection Was the Result of a Hospital’s Negligence?
Medical malpractice occurs when a physician or other employee of a healthcare facility breaches the standard of care. Since doctors must make treatment decisions on a case-by-case basis, only medical professionals can have a truly authoritative opinion about what the standard of care is. The most contagious infectious diseases cannot be considered iatrogenic infections; it is impossible to tell whether you caught a cold at the doctor’s office or on the bus on the way to the doctor’s office, for example. Iatrogenic infections are most commonly spread through direct contact. For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections most commonly occur in hospitalized patients when nurses and nursing assistants who interact directly with the patients do not wash their hands frequently enough or do not change their gloves immediately before attending to the patient.
In 2019, the family of a woman who died from an infection resulting from a contaminated needle received a $3.6 million medical malpractice settlement. Sometime in the spring of 2012, Debbie Benoit of Cocoa Beach went to Cape Canaveral Hospital to get spinal injections for management of lower back pain, but the injection site became infected, and by June, she had developed a spinal abscess. Doctors were never able to control the infection, and eventually it spread throughout her body and developed into meningitis. Bacterial meningitis is often fatal, and Benoit died from meningitis in 2013, never having left the hospital after being admitted for treatment of her spinal abscess in June 2012. She was 59 years old. Her husband sued the hospital, claiming that the hospital’s negligence was in failing to properly sterilize equipment was the cause of his wife’s death.
Set Up a Consultation Today
A medical malpractice lawyer can help you if your health got worse because of an iatrogenic infection. Contact Boone & Davis in Fort Lauderdale, Florida or call 954-566-919 to explore your potential recovery options today.
Source:
floridatoday.com/story/news/2019/01/28/cocoa-beach-man-wins-3-6-million-judgment-health-first-wifes-2013-death/2675946002/
