Hospital Infection Lawsuit Filed Over Tainted IV

A Virginia woman has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit after suffering an infection in a hospital that was allegedly caused by a tainted IV. 

The complaint was filed late last month by Barbara Stanford in Virginia’s Winchester County Circuit Court. Defendants in the lawsuit include Winchester Medical Center and a number of healthcare workers who interacted with the intravenous catheter that allegedly was the vector for Standford acquiring a streptococcus pyogenes blood infection.

Streptococcus pyogenes is most often known as Strep throat and is rarely associated with a blood infection. However, the lawsuit alleges that Stanford got the infection through a contaminated IV catheter that was placed in her left arm when she went to the hospital on March 28, 2010, for a partial bowel obstruction.

Stanford stayed at the hospital until she was released March 31, 2010. However, several days later she returned after her arm became red, tender and swollen at the IV site. At that time she was diagnosed with the blood infection. The hospital infection lawsuit seeks $800,000 in damages.

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of hospital infection lawsuits filed throughout the United States, as experts believe that most of these potentially life-threatening infections that develop in hospitals and medical centers can be prevented if steps are taken by the facility and staff.

Central line infections are among the deadliest types of hospital-acquired infections. The name comes from the fact that they are typically associated with patients who have a central line catheter installed long-term so they can be given medication or other liquids in much larger amounts than can be delivered by a typical IV unit.