If your loved one has died in hospital because of necrotising fasciitis, please get in touch with us today. We are a team of dedicated clinical negligence solicitors with considerable experience in necrotising fasciitis claims.
Necrotising fasciitis in hospital
Necrotising fasciitis is a bacterial infection that can be acquired both in and out of hospital. A patient may develop necrotising fasciitis while in hospital due to:
- A pressure sore
- A post-operative infection/surgical site infection
- Another bacterial infection such as MRSA
- An abscess
- Chemotherapy
- Poor hospital hygiene
- A needle prick wound – e.g. a cannula
Recognising necrotising fasciitis in hospital
When necrotising fasciitis does infect a hospital patient, it will move very quickly, causing a patient to develop symptoms within hours. These symptoms will include a fever, chronic tissue pain, and red, swollen skin that is hot to touch.
Healthcare providers should not overlook these symptoms. They are characteristic signs of an infection and should be investigated further. It would be unacceptable for medical practitioners to either miss or ignore a patient who has a fever with severe tissue pain.
What should happen is that medical practitioners take urgent steps to diagnose the underlying cause. This can be achieved with blood tests and a culture of the site of infection. Once a patient is confirmed to have necrotising fasciitis, emergency surgery must be performed to remove the infected tissue. This is the only way to cure the infection and prevent it spreading any further.
Hospital death from necrotising fasciitis
Unfortunately hospital patients with necrotising fasciitis are not always diagnosed and treated in time. This might happen because doctors and nurses:
- Fail to recognise a patient’s symptoms
- Dismiss a patient’s symptoms as something minor
- Fail to notice a deterioration in a patient’s condition
- Fail to arrange emergency debridement surgery
These errors will cause a delay in the patient’s treatment. This will give the infection time to spread to a large area of tissue as well as the bloodstream. A blood infection is known as sepsis and will make the patient critically unwell. In some cases, the patient will go on to suffer septic shock and multi-system organ failure. Sadly this can be fatal.
Has this affected your family?
If your family member died in hospital because necrotising fasciitis was not diagnosed and treated quickly enough, you need to talk to a solicitor. There may have been a substandard level of medical care, meaning you will be legally entitled to claim compensation.
Although this will not undo the awful damage that has been done, it will provide you with financial support for the future.
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