MRSA Skin Infection Misdiagnosis Lawsuit Filed in Florida
Published: January 13th, 2009 • Comments: 5
A Florida medical malpractice lawsuit has been filed against doctors who failed to properly diagnose a man with a MRSA skin infection, which ultimately led to his death.
In the wrongful death lawsuit filed December 29, 2008, the widow of Ronald Carl alleges that doctors at Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, Florida, negligently failed to evaluate and treat a boil, which was a virulent staph infection known as MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.
According to the complaint, Carl presented to the hospital in July with the boil, but was sent home with antibiotics and no culture test was taken to determine the nature of the condition.
When he returned to the hospital a few days later to control his blood sugar, a culture was taken that indicated he had a MRSA infection, but he was not notified and this was not noted in his medical records.
Approximately two months after the hospital failed to properly diagnose the MRSA skin infection, Carl was readmitted to the hospital and there was a 21 hour delay before he was examined and determined to be septic with MRSA. He was placed in the intensive care unit (ICU), but suffered a cardiac arrest hours later and died the following morning.
MRSA skin infections are generally characterized by the appearance of boils on the skin that can develop into an absess. A superficial abscess can often be drained and cultured to identify certain antibiotics that the infection may respond to.
When left untreated or improperly treated, MRSA infections can be potentially life-threatening, impacting the bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.
Comment by Patti on 2 February 2009:
Well, here is my dilemema…..
I was seen in my local hospital on November 10, 2008 with a boil on my buttocks, the emergency room doctor told me it was probably an ingrown hair, she lanced it and sent me home on antibiotics. The doctor never mentioned anything to me about it being a staph infection. At the time I did not have a primary care doctor but I did tell the emergency room doctor that I had a future appointment with a new primary doctor scheduled for December 4, 2008, because I just got health insurance through my employer.
I got sick this past weekend, January 26, 2009 with severe bronchitis, fever, chills,and two open wounds that were blisters but erupted on my outer upper thigh and went to see my primary doctor. I established care with my primary doctor on December 4, 2008 and told her of my emergency room visit and she had me sign release to obtain the results of the culture that she said should of been done at the emergency room of my lanced boil.
So upon my January 26, 2009, visit my doctor pulls out of my chart the results from November 10th visit at the ER and tells me that I have MRSA and my new lesions on my thigh are MRSA and I will always have this disease. I am so upset because I feel the hospital who treated me in November and knew this culture was positive for MRSA failed to ever notify me that I was infected with a very contagious disease. I share a restroom with my children and now I am scared to death my kids may also come down with this disease. I also share a public restroom at work with at least 30 fellow employees.
So, I have been infected with MRSA for well over two months not knowing till January 26, 2009.
I think the hospital should of informed me as soon as they had results so I could have taken precautions to prevent spreading this to anyone else. Even though I did not have a primary doctor at the time of my visit, the hospital did my have my home addresss and phone numbers.
Comment by Bob on 30 March 2009:
I was seen in emergency room at local hospital for chest pain and admitted in Jan of this year for observation. One of the nurses putting on an EKG lead without gloves on, scratched my chest barely. I was discharged the next day and a sore erupted at the site of the scratch. I was seen by a nurse practitioner who works with my family doctor at their after hours site and she said it looked like MRSA but did NOT DO A CULTURE and prescribed oral and cream antibiotics. I have photos of the mess that finally went away but not before I was re-admitted to the same hospital for more cardiac monitoring and they refused to treat it or allow me to get the rest of my oral antibiotic or cream rom my car to finish taking/using it. Their doctor tried to tell me it was a scar. Now I have a spot of something on my head and left hip and on my chest again???
Comment by Amy on 14 August 2009:
My daughter had tubes put in her ears a couple of years ago. Not long after she began having sever pain and drainage from her right ear. It took the Dr’s a few months to diagnose her with MRSA in that ear.
Since that time she has had several excruciating bouts with the infection in her ear and it is to my understanding that she will probably have problems with this for the rest of her life…she is only 4 years young!
I live in the North Carolina and am wondering from a leagal standpoint…is there anything we can to to compensate for my loss of work when she has “bouts” because she can not attend daycare. Also, is to compensate for her pain and suffering as well as a life-long illness that could have been prevented?
Comment by justin on 22 November 2009:
It all started when I fell asleep at the wheel, I had crushed my left leg and was just about brain dead. The doctors did a wonderful job in fixing me, an L shaped plate and seven screws plus a piece of my hip to make a new tibial plateau. The recovery wasn’t so wonderful, the incision had gotten infected and was said to be just superficial. I was put on Keflex and within a few weeks the infection of the skin had seemed to vanish. The following few months seemed great, I was gaining mobility, the leg felt fine and I had thought that life was finally getting back to normal… that is until once again, my leg had become infected. A large red tender boil just below my left knee. Back to the doctors we go, again it is said to be a “superficial” infection of the skin. I was put on keflex and told if I see a spike in fever to call. A week or two had gone by and the tender mass was still there. Finally having my leg well enough to do physical activity I decided that I was going to start getting back in shape. I started running 2 miles a day, on the morning of the fourth day I woke up to a knee nearly doubled in size and quite painful. Upon return to the doctors this increase in size and pain was enough for them to decide to remove the hardware that was no more than half a year earlier put in to fix my leg. It was not until after this surgery that the “professional” doctors found that MRSA was in fact already down to the bone, in what was a “superficial” skin infection. They could have cultured the fluid from when they lanced my infection and saved me the hassle of a second surgery, not facing the emotional stressors of realizing at 18 that if the antibiotics didn’t work it was either take the leg or die, could have stopped the infection before it had time to get into the bone, ruining the tail end of my senior year due to not being able to participate because the need of a nurse to go wherever i went, ruining my last summer with all of the classmates i grew up with before we branch off and go our own ways, and self medicating twice a day for two hours at a time. Doctors have completely lost my trust.
Comment by Rachael on 14 February 2010:
I recently had a c-section delivery. At my 2 week follow-up I was still not healed. Now nearly 5 weeks home from the hospital my incision is not completely healed. shortly after noticing pus drainage from an area of the incision, I developed 2 area that appeared to be bug bites. I tried to care for those myself with fail. I have recently seen my primary doctor for the “bites” only to be told that I most likely have MRSA. A culture was not done, but I have been placed on the antibiotic. I have since found another wound. If incision was in fact infected with MRSA staph infection (my GP did not to a culture), I contracted this in the hospital during the delivery of my child. I am frightened and have begun the antibiotic treatment in the hopes of curing this infection. I am also afraid of spreading the infection to my newborn (whom I have breast fed since she was born), not mention the fear of my other children contracting this “disease”. I think I may need to consult with an attorney. Is this a case worth the time and money?