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A

Angela Martin

Guest
What is the name of your state? New Jersey
My Husband had a SDS ventrical umbilical hernia repair in April 2003. With in days of the surgery he was being treated for staph infection of the surgical wound. This quickly turned in to MRSA which was resistant to many antibiotics. By July he was being I&D in the surgeon's office bi-weekly and on very powerful oral antibiotics. The wound was not healing. The surgeon kept this treatment up until October. We questioned if he should go to an infectious disease MD; the surgeon felt things were looking better. We thought so also as the wound was healed over. In December he started with fevers again; went to an I&D MD on our own. She suggested a coarse of 4-6 weeks home IV antibiotic therapy. We agreed and also went back to the surgeon. He seemed upset that we did this on our own and he felt that a second surgery would be needed now. The I&D MD thought the surgeon should have put him on IV therapy much sooner; she agreed that it looked like surgery would be the next step. The surgeon explained the surgery and that he would loose his belly button; the wound would stay open for a week and after the sign of infection is gone close him up and send him home. After 2 weeks inpatient with open wound he went home with open wound and more IV therapy. 7 days post-op our surgeon falls ill and is never returns to practice. We are followed up with a covering surgeon and after 3 more months another hospital stay and more infection he finally became well. My question is do we have a chance at a law suit. We lost 24 months of our lives battleing an infection; my husband is self-employed and we had no disability. What do you think?
:rolleyes:
 


ellencee

Senior Member
Angela Martin
As for acquiring the infection, in order to have a claim of malpractice or negligence, your husband would need to prove that the infection was caused by negligent care (i.e. a known MRSA patient in the same room with your husband, post-operatively, or on the same floor as your husband AND the nursing staff/MD staff failed to exercise proper handwashing and other infection control measures).

In most situations, the patient is the actual host of the MRSA organism (usually in the nose or the skin). Once a break in the skin's integrity occurs, as in a surgical wound, the organism enters the break in the skin barrier and becomes an infection in the area. It is not unusual for the infection to first be treated as a 'regular' staph infection. Once it becomes apparent that the infection is due to MRSA, different medications are used in hope of finding a medication regimen that can control the infection and, hopefully, resolve the infection.

It is not unusual for a MRSA infection in an operative site to require the treatment and length of treatment that you have described.

You should consult with a medmal attorney in your area (the area of the hospital and treating physicians). Consultations are usually free. It is important for your husband to know the statute of limitations that will apply to his claim, should he have a viable claim of negligence/malpractice.

Best wishes,
EC
 
A

Angela Martin

Guest
Thank you for replying. I do belive the statue is 2 years from the 1st surgery. Basically this is a complication and even though the course of treatment choosen was not the best it was not negligent? I figured such; thanks again :)
 
R

ResIpsaLoquitur

Guest
Post-op infection

It sounds like you went through a very rough time: I'm glad the problem was finally resolved.

By all means, consult with a medical malpractice attorney.

You might want to keep this in mind, however: the primary post-op staph infection is an expected risk of surgery. But even more significant is that despite the infectious disease specialist's opinion that your surgeon should have received IV antibiotics much sooner, you returned to the same surgeon; followed his recommended course of treatment and allowed him to operate again - well over a year after the initial surgery and after you were told your husband would "lose his belly button" :confused:

I'm not trying to "blame the victim". Whatever your reasoning was - should you be able to get this matter in front of a jury - I fear you would not enjoy the cross-examination by the defense attorney: assuming you were not called as a witness for the surgeon. :(

I'm glad your husband recovered and wish you the best.
 
A

Angela Martin

Guest
Thank you both for your replies. I was afraid that there was no recoarse. As to going back to the same surgeon we had no choice...within network of my insurance we took him to 2 surgeons and they would not touch the case and advised to keep him with the original surgeon.
Thanks for your time...great web site! :)
 

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