Infection Malpractice

 Posted on October 19, 2008 in Medical Malpractice

Last week, a Chicago man settled a medical malpractice case for $10 million against two groups representing doctors that he sued. In 2003, the man, a 33-year-old vice president at one of the country’s largest information technology staffing firms, was doing great. One year earlier, he had been diagnosed with a routine heart valve condition, a murmur and bicuspid heart valve, leaving him at risk of infective endocarditis, a buildup of bacteria around the heart valve
The heart condition led to the infection in his heart, but doctors with a local hospital repeatedly misdiagnosed it, sending the man home with allergy medication once and instructions on visiting a back specialist another time. The undiagnosed infection led to a piece of the infection breaking free and traveling to the man’s brain, according to the lawsuit. That caused a stroke that left the man with severe physical and mental disabilities, including severe damage to his language center. The man, a father of two children, still suffers from seizures, has no use of one of his hands and has difficulty walking, talking and reading.

The settlement will be will be used to continue rehabilitation and search for other ways for him to get better. The amount of the settlement was based on the man’s medical and other care needs, and projected future earnings.

I have successfully handled a number of medical malpractice / medical negligence / medical error cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland involving a failure to timely diagnose and treat infections. Other cases have involved failure to diagnose an treat sepsis. The malpractice in my cases has led to death, amputations, brain damage, etc. It’s always tragic when a doctor fails to prescribe something so simple as antibiotics in this day and age, especially for patients at high risk for such infections.