crappy doctor

What is the name of your state? Utah

My brother-in-law fell onto a hay swather about a month ago. One of the prongs went into the back of his knee. He had to have surgery to get it taken out. The problem actually occured when he got home. He was in the hospital for about five days and then they let him come home. They sent him home with no antibiotics just some painkillers. Needless to say he ended up with major infection and they had to do surgery again to clean it out. He was in the hospital for another ten days. He is now doing an IV of antibiotics for six weeks every six hours. The doctor who treated him was an idiot, one of the worst doctors I've ever been around. I know that there is always a possibility of infection but what I don't understand is why wouldn't he send him home with any antibiotics the first time? I'm just wondering if there is anything to be done or if we just have to live with it. Thanks for any help you can give me.

It is possible that after receiving antibiotics during surgery, including into the wound itself, and receiving antibiotics after surgery, that no indication for additional antibiotics was present at discharge. It would have to be proven that the surgeon knew or should have known that an infectious process was on-going and that failure to provide antibiotic therapy after discharge resulted in an infection/required treatment that the patient would otherwise not have developed/needed.

EC