Failure to Diagnose and Treat an infection

Settlement Amount: $500,000.00
Settlement Date: 1/2013
Attorney: Howard D. Mishkind

Description of Case: Plaintiff was a divorced 63 year of women at the time of her death. Her death was caused by a staphylococcus aureus infection that was not timely diagnosed or treated and as a consequence she developed sepsis (a systematic inflammatory response to the infection) that led to multisystem organ failure and her death. Defendants’ position was that the patient presented to the hospital with severe back pain and was treated properly. They further argued through their experts that her infection was not obvious and no known cause of infection was ever determined. They opined that the Defendants were not negligent and that further, earlier treatment of this infection would not have made a difference. Case was settled prior to commencement of trial. She was survived by adult children.