Multi-million-dollar recovery for amputation caused by delay in diagnosing necrotizing fasciitis

Necrotizing fasciitis is a rare bacterial infection that can spread quickly and cause significant
damage to tissue, and even death, if it is not promptly diagnosed and treated. The most effective
treatment is immediate surgery to debride and excise (clean and cut out) the infected or dead
tissue. Some of the common signs of necrotizing fasciitis include severe pain and skin that is
red, warm, swollen, and may have blisters.

In this case, our client reported to the emergency room at a Pennsylvania hospital with
complaints of sudden onset of pain in her leg, and the leg showed blotchy areas of purple lesions
and was also quite warm and swollen. The emergency room physician felt she had a simple case
of cellulitis and sent her home. The patient got worse at home and returned on her own to the
emergency room a few days later. By that time, her pain was even worse, and she had very
suspicious blistering and enlarged areas of discoloration on her leg. This time she was admitted
to the hospital overnight, but there was still a delay in suspecting necrotizing fasciitis. Finally, a
few days into her hospital admission, she was transferred to a more skilled hospital where she
underwent immediate surgery for suspected necrotizing fasciitis. Unfortunately, by that time
significant gangrene had set into her leg and it had to be amputated.

We arranged to have the medical records reviewed by appropriate doctors who specialize in
emergency medicine and general surgery. They both agreed that necrotizing fasciitis should have
been suspected when the patient first came into the emergency room. They agreed that had the
correct diagnosis been made and the patient taken to the operating room at that time, the infected
tissue could have been removed before the necrotizing fasciitis progressed to widespread
gangrene and the leg could have been saved.

In these types of cases, we typically retain a life care planner who calculates all of the future
medical costs including things such as medical equipment, prosthetic leg, medical monitoring,
medication, etc. But the even greater damage than these medical expenses is the mental and
emotional trauma that flows from the loss of a limb along with the permanent impact it has on
day-to-day lifestyle. Our claim for damages in this case included that full range of impact.