Annually, hospitals in the United States treat over one million cases of sepsis, with almost a quarter of these cases resulting in death of the patient. With such a well-known risk to patients, sepsis cases are often misdiagnosed initially by physicians, or in other cases, are actually caused by the conditions and treatment received by a physician at a given hospital. The nature of sepsis itself, which involves bacterial, fungal, parasitic, or viral infections entering the bloodstream, requires immediate treatment or the patient will die. If not addressed early, sepsis infections cause a massive immune system response in the body, which will ultimately cause clotting and prevent major organs from receiving oxygen-rich blood. Eventually, gangrene will set in, followed by organ failure, and finally, death. Cases of sepsis that do not result in death; however, will still leave patients with severely damaged organs, which ultimately present patients with a host of other future medical issues and damages.
Hospital Liability for Hospital Acquired Infections
In order for sepsis to occur in a patient, some foreign infection must enter the patient’s bloodstream. A wide variety of infections may ultimately cause this to happen, however, in some sepsis cases, a patient may actually acquire the infection eventually causing sepsis while in the hospital. Known as hospital-acquired infections, a patient may ultimately hold a hospital liable for damages caused by sepsis; if they can show a hospital-acquired infection eventually caused sepsis in their bloodstream. Commonly, hospital acquired infections are resultant from unsanitary conditions in the hospital itself, unsanitary or unsafe practices by hospital employees and doctors, or unsanitary or inadequately cleaned equipment, bedding, utensils, and medical tools.
Hospital Liability for Failure to Diagnosis and Treat Sepsis
Another route for proving hospital liability over sepsis-related damage claims includes proving misdiagnosis, failed diagnosis, or delayed diagnosis of sepsis caused further medical damages in a patient. This can include sepsis infections acquired while under the care of a given hospital or outside of the hospital’s facilities. If a patient seeks medical care for symptoms that ultimately turn out to be a sepsis infection, the doctor overseeing their care has a standard duty of care obligation to correctly diagnosis a patient’s sepsis infection, if present. When a medical professional fails to do so and damages occur as the result, the doctor is liable for wrong diagnosis damage claims. In order for a hospital to be liable for the wrong or delay diagnosis of a physician, the patient and their legal counsel must establish an employer relationship between the doctor and a given hospital, which may not require proving a doctor was employed by the hospital per se.
Getting Legal Help
Any patient suffering from hospital-acquired sepsis infections, or any patient suffering from damages from an undiagnosed sepsis infection, should consult legal counsel once their condition has stabilized. Thousands of patients each year die due to hospital acquired sepsis infections, while exponentially more are left with organ and other tissue damages. Having legal counsel advocate your rights to damages, which may include naming a hospital as a liable defendant, is critical.
