Sepsis Misdiagnosis Claims

Sepsis is most commonly misdiagnosed through the symptoms either being misinterpreted or the severity of the signs not being fully assessed. When you visit your doctor or a hospital with concerns you should be able to rely on those responsible for your care to take the necessary steps to achieve an accurate diagnosis.

If, for example, tests to diagnose sepsis were not conducted despite you presenting the symptoms of the condition, you may be able to take forward a misdiagnosed sepsis lawsuit. You will need to prove that a medical professional missed an opportunity to diagnose you for a doctor misdiagnosed sepsis claim to be successful.

The symptoms of sepsis can often be mistaken for other conditions, some of which may not require urgent treatment and leading to a delay in vital treatment being delivered. Wrong diagnosis of sepsis can have a detrimental effect on the impact that treatment will have once delivered.

Conditions that sepsis may be misdiagnosed as include:

• Cold
• Flu
• Acute appendicitis
• Iron poisoning
• Gastroenteritis
• Muscle strain

If you believe you or a family member were not treated adequately when in hospital suffering a delay in diagnosis of sepsis you may be able to make a claim for medical negligence. Sepsis misdiagnosis claims must show that medical negligence occurred and it resulted in an avoidable injury.

Missed diagnosis

If you attended a doctor’s appointment or visited a hospital presenting the signs of sepsis you have the right to expect that medical professionals will deal with you appropriately and this can include ordering the necessary tests to give an accurate diagnosis. Sepsis misdiagnosis compensation claims will arise if the level of care you received was below an acceptable standard, leading to a missed diagnosis.

Misdiagnosed sepsis cases are all unique and this is reflected in the amount of compensation that each patient receives. As a result, it’s impossible to say just how much misdiagnosis of sepsis compensation you could receive without first taking the time to understand your individual case.

We’ll take the time to fully listen to your experiences, allowing us to place a value on your claim that reflects how you’ve been affected. We take a wide variety of areas into consideration when creating your misdiagnosis of sepsis claim value, from the impact on your long-term health to loss of earnings you may have experienced.

If you would like to make a sepsis misdiagnosis lawsuit having experienced medical negligence, you must act within three years. After this time limit, you will not be able to hold those responsible to account for the suffering you experienced.

The start of this timeframe is from the ‘date of knowledge’ rather than when you first sought medical help. This means that you have three years from when you first realised that mistakes had been made in your level of care. Often in sepsis cases, the condition develops quickly but it can still be confusing when you’re trying to pinpoint exactly when the ‘date of knowledge’ happened. If you’re unsure but would like to claim for sepsis misdiagnosis, our team of experts can help you. Using our experience of supporting those affected by medical negligence we’ll help you understand exactly how long you have to act.

Sepsis is caused by an infection in the body. Usually, your body’s immune system will effectively fight an infection but if it’s already weakened or an infection is severe it can spread through the blood to other parts of the body. In response, the immune system can go into overdrive, with inflammation affecting the entire body that can damage tissue and interfere with blood flow. This effect can lead to a dangerous drop in blood pressure, preventing oxygen from travelling around the body as normal.

An infection in any part of the body can trigger sepsis but it’s most commonly caused by infections that start in the lungs, urinary tract, abdomen, and pelvis.

There are lots of symptoms of sepsis but the early signs can be missed by individuals who don’t know what they are looking for. The early symptoms of sepsis may include:

• A high temperature
• Chills and shivering
• A fast heartbeat
• Fast breathing

If the condition remains untreated it can develop into more severe sepsis or septic shock, when the blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level.

Initially, sepsis is often diagnosed based on simple measurements, such as temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate, as well as the symptoms you are presenting. A blood test can also be used to identify blood poisoning and signal that treatment is needed.

Once you’ve been diagnosed other tests are typically conducted. These tests aim to determine the type of infection, where it is located, and how it has affected your body’s functions, allowing treatment to be tailored to your condition.

If sepsis is caught during the early stages, it is relatively easy to treat. If you are showing signs of sepsis you will usually be referred to a hospital for diagnosis and treatment to begin.

Treatment involves taking antibiotics, giving fluids intravenously and giving oxygen if levels are low. Due to the serious nature of sepsis treatment should begin within an hour of diagnosis to limit the possibility of the infection worsening. Medical professionals should also undertake tests to assess the severity of sepsis and identify the type of bacteria causing the condition.

While in the majority of cases the signs of sepsis and blood infections are spotted quickly, where this doesn’t occur it can prove fatal. A delay in diagnosis of sepsis can also result in treatment being significantly setback, meaning that patients may be left dealing with lifelong conditions associated with misdiagnosed sepsis, including:

Amputation

Sepsis causes your body’s blood clotting mechanism to go into overdrive, potentially causing blockages inside the blood vessels. This means that oxygen and vital nutrients may not be able to get to some areas of the body, leading to tissue death. When undiagnosed sepsis is allowed to continue developing conditions such as gangrene can also emerge, leading to the need for amputations. In some cases, this will mean losing fingers or toes but it can mean patients need a limb amputating in order to save their life, significantly impacting on their future.

There aren’t any official sepsis misdiagnosis statistics but a study has shown that poor levels of NHS care are contributing to the startling high fatalities that occur from sepsis.

The research from 2013, which looked at the effects of delayed treatment, found that almost 13,000 patients die needlessly every year from severe infections. Missed sepsis diagnosis and delays in treatment being delivered meant that opportunities to save lives were being missed, the study concluded. Problems that were highlighted included lack of early diagnosis, failure to recognise severity, delays in treatment, and delay in the control of the infection. Patients that have encountered these problems when suffering from an infection may be able to make a failure to diagnose claim to reflect how they have been let down by the healthcare system.

Despite being a well-known and life-threatening condition, sepsis is often underestimated by the general public. According to NHS figures, it’s estimated that every year more than 100,000 in the UK are admitted to hospital with sepsis. As a result of the condition around 31,000 people die annually in the UK, highlighting how dangerous blood poisoning can be and the need for effective treatment.

A delayed diagnosis of sepsis can mean the chances of making a full recovery are more limited. Every year more people die from sepsis in the UK than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined and it’s the biggest direct cause of death in UK pregnancies.

Septic arthritis may also be known as infectious arthritis as it is caused by a bacterial infection. It causes inflammation around the joint, often resulting in severe pain, and can affect any joint in the body, although it’s most commonly affects the knees or hips. Where effective treatment is given, most sufferers of septic arthritis make a full recovery with no lasting damage. However, where treatment isn’t delivered it has the potential to cause permanent joint damage and become life-threatening.

Septic arthritis can affect both adults and children. The condition is usually caused by bacteria that are spread through the bloodstream but it may also enter the body through an open wound or opening following surgery.

There are several different types of bacteria that can cause septic arthritis, most commonly staphylococcal bacteria and streptococcal bacteria. In addition to bacteria causing septic arthritis, there are risk factors that can increase a person’s chance of contracting the condition.

Septic arthritis is where a joint becomes inflamed due to a bacterial infection and generally, the symptoms will come on rapidly, sometimes developing over just a few hours. Intense pain, swelling, redness, and heat in the affected joints are the most common signs of septic arthritis.

Other signs of septic arthritis may include:

• Difficulty in moving the affected joint
• A high temperature
• Chills
• Fatigue

If you experienced misdiagnosed septic arthritis, you may be able to make a claim. Successful cases demonstrate that there was both an opportunity to accurately diagnose the condition and that the medical negligence experienced led to undue suffering.

There are a number of ways you can show that your wrong diagnosis of septic arthritis was due to medical negligence. For example, you could show that:

• There was a failure to diagnose septic arthritis after your GP missed the symptoms of the condition
• If you were not referred to A&E despite presenting the signs of septic arthritis
• The necessary tests were not ordered to achieve a diagnosis
• Your test results were read incorrectly
• You presented the symptoms of septic diagnosis but tests were negative and other tests were not ordered
• There was an unnecessary delay in your care

Septic arthritis is most common in young children and elderly and if your child has been affected you may be able to make a compensation claim on their behalf.

In children, septic arthritis is most common in the hips. Long-term complications of septic arthritis can have a huge effect on quality of life, for instance limiting mobility. When you take your child to your doctors or local hospital with concerns you should be able to rely on those responsible for their care to take the necessary steps to achieve a quick, accurate diagnosis. Septic arthritis misdiagnosis cases not only mean that children are in pain and uncomfortable for longer but can increase the likelihood of complications occurring.

Often when experiencing joint pain, a person will make an appointment with their GP. However, if your symptoms indicate that they could be caused by septic arthritis, your GP will immediately refer you to an A&E department for further testing.

Those undergoing an assessment for septic arthritis will have a blood test and a sample of fluid removed from the affected joint. These tests will examine whether inflammation and infection is present and identify bacteria that may be present. However, these tests aren’t always accurate and it is possible for them to return a negative result even when septic arthritis is to blame for the symptoms.

Complications of septic arthritis can often be minimised or the risk reduced through administering the necessary treatment but where septic arthritis misdiagnosis has occurred this can lead to the risks increasing. A late septic arthritis diagnosis can mean that vital treatment is delayed, which in turn can lead to joint degeneration and, in some cases, permanent damage to the affected joint.

Occasionally, it is possible for doctor misdiagnosed septic arthritis to occur. Some of the symptoms of septic arthritis can mimic other conditions, leading to undiagnosed septic arthritis and a delay in the delivery of treatment.

Some of the conditions that septic arthritis may wrongly be labelled as include:

• Gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis 
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Rheumatic fever
• Adult Still’s disease
• Lyme disease

There aren’t any official septic arthritis claims misdiagnosis statistics. However, while rare there are cases of septic arthritis misdiagnosis occurring in the UK.

While not specific to septic arthritis, previous research has indicated that as many as one in six patients treated by the NHS are initially misdiagnosed because medical professionals are too quick to judge a patient’s symptoms.

• 45% of septic arthritis sufferers are over 65 years old and are more likely to have multiple diseases
• 56% of septic arthritis patients are male.
• Between 1.5 and 2.5% of joint infections are caused by an increase in antibiotic-resistant organisms during a first procedure.
• Up to 20% of joint infections are caused by an increase in antibiotic-resistant organisms during further procedures
• At least 2 – 10% of patients fitted with a prosthetic limb suffer prosthetic joint infection (PJI)  
• There are an estimated 20,000 cases of acute bacterial arthritis per year in both the US and Europe

If you or a member of your family suffered harm due to a medical error, you need to know why you were so badly let down by those entrusted to take care of you.  For example, 

• If a doctor, GP or hospital fails or delays in diagnosing and treating septic arthritis, or
• If you or a loved one suffered complications from the diagnosis and/or treatment of septic arthritis, which led to a preventable amputation.

To prove a successful clinical negligence claim you need to:

• Show that the treatment you received fell below a standard that a reasonable body of medical opinion would find acceptable. 
• Establish that if there had not been a ‘breach of duty’, the damage or injury would not have occurred.