staph infection resulting in death of patient

[dittums]

My husband was sent by our family physician for a chest x-ray. We used a diagnostic imaging center, not in the local hospital. The x-ray showed a 2.5 cm mass on his right lung. We then returned to the center for a CT scan. Our doctor got the results and told us to seek a thorasic surgeon. He also sent my husband to the local hospital to have blood gases drawn. We opted for a surgeon in New York and left Florida for an appointment in NY. When my husband arrived at the surgeon's office he was very weak from what we were told in Florida was pneumonia. The NY surgeon scheduled a hospital stay biopsy to determine if the mass was cancer of the lung. He could not say by looking at the ct scam. Three days later my husband was taken by ambulance to the hospital in shock. The diagnosis was a massive staph infection throughout his body. Dispite massive doses of antibiotics, he succumed eight days later to the staph infection. The cancer could not be addressed since he was too weak from the infection.

Do I have any recourse to the Florida hospital where the blood was drawn or the diagnostic imaging center where a needle was put into his arm to put die through for the ct scan? Somewhere in those two places he had to have picked up the infection, but how do I proceed, if at all.

thank you. Dittums

 

[PamSJS]

Dear dittums;

Unfortunately, it would be impossible to prove that the injection site from the arterial blood gases or the administration of the dye was where your husband contracted the staph. More than likely, he already had staph in his system, (i.e., the mass on his lung), and by the time proper antibiotic treatment was started, it was too late.

You may have a claim against the Florida physician (negligence), if he did not order antibiotic therapy for his diagnosis of pneumonia. Between the time he was diagnosed in Florida and seen by the thoracic surgeon in NY, he should have been on some type of restorative treatment.

You may want to start by collecting all of your husbands medical records, including the physicians office records, laboratory records, diagnostic center, hospital records, etc. Before an attorney would take a case on the assumption that your husband was treated negligently, or contracted the staph from the diagnostic center, you would have to have a professional review the records and submit a written report substantiating your claims.

If I can be of help, you may contact me at PamSJS@aol.com.

God bless you. My prayers are with you.

Pam