It is possible to recover from necrotising fasciitis, although the recovery can be long and frustrating, particularly if a large area of tissue has been debrided.
Can you survive necrotising fasciitis?
Necrotising fasciitis does have high mortality rates if untreated. In fact if no treatment is given whatsoever, the mortality rate is 100%. But if surgery is carried out in time, the patient has a 60-80% chance of survival.
Surgery is therefore the key to surviving necrotising fasciitis. As long as an operation to remove the dead tissue is performed in time, that patient can go on to make a full recovery.
Recovering from necrotising fasciitis
Nevertheless, a patient who has suffered necrotising fasciitis will often face a long recovery period. Necrotising fasciitis is a very aggressive infection and it usually makes a patient critically unwell, even if diagnosed and treated quickly.
Most patients with necrotising fasciitis will require a stay in the Intensive Care Unit or High Dependency Unit, followed by further care on another ward. The average hospital stay for a necrotising fasciitis patient is 33 days.
Even after being discharged from hospital, ongoing medical care will be needed. The patient may be seen regularly by a District Nurse to have their wound dressings changed. Furthermore, the patient may be referred to a plastic surgery or burn centre to undergo reconstruction of the wound.
Poor outcome due to medical error
As mentioned above, necrotising fasciitis will typically make a patient extremely unwell and will lead to a long recovery.
However, there are occasions when the actions of medical professionals contribute to the severity of a patient’s condition. For example, doctors may fail to diagnose and treat a patient immediately, meaning surgical debridement is delayed.
This delay will cause the patient to deteriorate, giving the infection time to spread to more tissue and even to the blood. The patient’s condition will get worse, protracting their eventual recovery time. A large area of tissue will also have to be debrided, creating a bigger defect than if surgery had been performed at an earlier time.
If errors made by medical practitioners contributed towards the severity of a patient’s illness and increased their recovery time, there could be a case of medical negligence.
Can you claim for medical negligence?
If you have been subject to poor medical care while suffering from necrotising fasciitis, you need to find out whether you could be entitled to claim compensation. To talk to a solicitor about your prospects of success, please get in touch with our team today.
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