Medical Malpractice Claim Filed on Behalf of Client

April 03, 2011 (Press-News.org) Our firm was recently retained by a 54 year old patient who suffered headaches and back pain following an epidural injection. Several days later when he presented himself to the emergency room he had a temperature of 101 degrees, severe headache and was beginning to lose bladder and bowel control.

An emergency room physician gave him one dose of antibiotics. A neurosurgeon discontinued the antibiotics and treated the patient with steroids. During his four day hospital admission he received no additional antibiotic therapy. He was discharged with a diagnosis of arachnoiditis.

After several days of being at home he continued to experience a progression of loss of bowel and bladder control and the pain was unrelenting. He was readmitted to the hospital where he was correctly diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Bacterial meningitis is a treatable condition if diagnosed soon enough.

In this case we will be filing a medical malpractice claim on behalf of this patient for a delay in diagnosis of bacterial meningitis caused by the epidural injection which introduced bacteria into his spinal fluid.

While it is nearly always difficult to justify a medical malpractice case based on a procedure CAUSING an infection. Cases involving a failure to diagnose an infection in a timely fashion are more easily proven. In this case, the patient had classic symptoms of meningitis with objective evidence on MRI scan during his first hospitalization. This fact pattern likely presents a strong case for substandard care entitling the plaintiff to whatever damages a jury deems appropriate.

Article provided by Thomas Garvey Garvey & Sciotti, PLLC
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