What Happened
Our firm successfully resolved a catastrophic medical malpractice case after multiple healthcare providers failed to recognize and properly treat a rapidly progressing necrotizing fasciitis infection, nearly resulting in the loss of our client's leg.
What began as a small puncture wound after a motorcycle accident developed into a severe, life-threatening infection over the course of several weeks. Despite worsening redness, swelling, drainage, tissue destruction, elevated infection markers, and obvious signs of a serious infection, providers repeatedly misdiagnosed the condition and failed to admit our client for emergency treatment with IV antibiotics and surgical intervention.
Instead, the infection was incorrectly treated as “burns” and managed with topical ointments and oral antibiotics while the tissue destruction rapidly spread beneath the skin. By the time the condition was finally recognized as necrotizing fasciitis, emergency surgeries were required to remove large amounts of infected and dead tissue, including more than half of the calf muscle.
As a result of the delayed diagnosis, our client endured multiple surgeries, wound vacuum therapy, prolonged hospitalization, rehabilitation, chronic pain, severe disfigurement, permanent physical limitations, and ongoing disability. Because of the tissue destruction and infection risk, she was later told she was no longer a candidate for knee replacement surgery and would require lifelong pain management.
Practice Areas Involved
This result arose from the kind of care reviewed on these pages. If something similar happened in your family, they explain what the records are read for.