Wrongful Death Lawsuit Claims Misdiagnosis Led To Fatal Urinary Tract Infection

A New Hampshire hospital faces a medical malpractice lawsuit over failure to diagnose a urinary tract infection, which resulted in the wrongful death of a 67-year-old woman last year. 

The complaint was filed by the family of Jacklyn Chamberlin in Rockingham Superior Court in New Hampshire state court on January 13, naming Exeter Hospital, Drs. Craig Maclean and Steven Kahan, as well as U.S. Acute Care Solutions and Core Physicians LLC, as defendants.

According to a report by Seacostonline.com, the wrongful death lawsuit indicates that Chamberlin was admitted to the emergency department on October 24, 2016 suffering from fever-like symptoms, and an ultrasound found a kidney stone obstructing her urethra and bacteria in her urine. However, the treating physicians allegedly decided that she did not have an infection and did not recommend antibiotic treatment.

As a result of the medical misdiagnosis, Chamberlin suffered sepsis and septic shock, and returned to the hospital two days later. Despite an emergency operation and treatment, she died from the infectiion on October 27.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of failing to diagnose the urinary tract infection caused by a kidney stone. It also alleges the defendants failed to meet the proper standards of medical care, due to their decision not to prescribe Chamberlin antibiotics to fight the infection.

Sepsis occurs when the body overreacts to an infection, causing the immune system to begin damaging the body’s own tissues as well as combating foreign bacteria.

Currently, only about 70% of patients diagnosed with septic shock walk out of U.S. hospitals alive. That is because every hour that treatment is delayed lowers the rate of survival by about 8%, yet many hospitals fail to immediately diagnose sepsis and do not begin providing appropriate treatment for four to six hours.

Symptoms of septic shock are often vague, including:

• Confusion
• Shortness of breath
• Increase heart rate
• Declining blood pressure
• Weakness