Post-Surgical Infections

Surgery is inherently risky. When you decide to have a surgery, you trust your doctor and nurses to adhere to appropriate standards to avoid causing you harm. After a surgery, you may be in a particularly vulnerable condition, especially prone to infection or injury. Sometimes a surgery goes well, but a patient develops a post-surgical infection. This infection may have been avoidable. At the Dean Law Firm, our Ocala medical malpractice lawyers may be able to help you seek compensation if you were harmed by a post-surgical infection caused by medical malpractice.

Some causes of post-surgical infections include caregiver negligence and poor hospital hygiene. Infections acquired while in the hospital are a leading cause of patient death in the U.S. These infections are of many different kinds, but one of the most dangerous is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection (MRSA). This is a type of staph infection that has been particularly common in hospitals since about 1999, and it is acutely dangerous because it is so resistant to the typical antibiotics prescribed to treat staph infections. Someone with a staph infection may seem to have very few symptoms but then may catch the flu, which may result in pneumonia and lung infections. A surgical patient is particularly susceptible to staph infections.

Not all post-surgical infections result from medical malpractice. In some cases, every possible thing is done to prevent an infection, but it happens anyway. However, if a hospital delays effective treatment, fails to follow sterilization protocols in connection with surgical instruments, neglects to provide an adequate blood supply to dissected tissue, or allows debris to make contact with a surgical wound, these actions are likely to constitute negligent conduct.

To establish medical malpractice, you will need to prove that there was a breach of duty by your health care provider, and it was an actual and legal cause of your post-surgical infection. We will need to retain an expert to prove that the post-surgical infection was a result of a breach of duty by a health care provider. In many cases, a hospital may be liable for failing to respond to an infection that developed after surgery in a timely fashion.

When a plaintiff files a complaint for medical malpractice in Florida, a certificate of counsel needs to be attached, stating that the attorney conducted a reasonable investigation and has a good-faith belief that there is a basis for suing each of the defendants named in the lawsuit. Good faith exists when the attorney receives a written expert opinion that there appears to be evidence of medical negligence in a particular case.

The expert should be from the same specialty as the physician who is being sued and will testify at trial as to the actions or omissions by the defendant that constituted medical malpractice. In order for a judge to allow an expert to testify, the expert will need to prove that their theories and techniques have been tested and subjected to peer review, have a low mistake rate, and are generally accepted in the scientific community.

If you suffer a post-surgical infection after a procedure, our experienced Ocala medical malpractice attorneys can negotiate on your behalf to seek compensation or take your case to trial as appropriate. Call us at 352-387-8700 or contact us via our online form to set up a free consultation. Our surgical error attorneys also represent medical malpractice victims in Ocala, Crystal River, The Villages, and other areas of Marion, Sumter, Lake, Citrus, and Levy Counties.