Compensating Financial Losses Due to Necrotising Fasciitis
For a patient who has suffered from necrotising fasciitis, the long-term health and employment implications can be significant. If this poor outcome is a result of delayed medical care, it may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
A successful compensation claim can provide recompense for financial losses such as a reduced income due to an inability to work either in the short-term or permanently.
Financial losses and necrotising fasciitis
Necrotising fasciitis is a virulent infection which destroys the body's deep soft tissue.
A delay in diagnosis and surgery can lead to appalling and debilitating long-term symptoms which can reduce an individual's ability to work and earn an income.
- A patient who develops necrotising fasciitis in a limb is at risk of losing that limb if treatment is delayed. Where this proves to be the case, the impact on the patient's employment is likely to cause a loss in income. If the patient is unable to work at all in the future, those losses will be considerable.
- Necrotising fasciitis in the abdomen may cause a loss of bowel function and may require the patient to have a stoma fitted. Again, such an outcome may affect the individual's capacity to work and cause significant and permanent income losses.
- The long-term physical and psychological health of the patient may be diminished by their traumatic experience of necrotising fasciitis and the associated surgery, tissue loss and need for life support. Patients who have suffered the severest ravages of necrotising fasciitis and the debridement surgery that is needed to halt the infection, may need long-term support in order to carry out normal everyday tasks, the cost of which may be very high.
An emergency health response
Necrotising fasciitis is a medical emergency. A failure by medical professionals to recognise or suspect the possible early symptoms, leading to a catastrophic outcome for the patient and their family, may be regarded as substandard care.
This horrific infection spreads through the body rapidly and a delay in initiating treatment in the form of antibiotics and surgical debridement of infected tissue will increase the chances that the patient will suffer the effects permanently. It will also increase the likelihood that the patient will not survive.
Claiming compensation
If delays in diagnosis and treatment have contributed to long-term health and financial losses by the patient, it may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
Contact Glynns Solicitors, specialists in medical negligence compensation with expertise in necrotising fasciitis claims.
Please call us free on 0800 234 3300 (or from a mobile 01275 334030) or complete our Online Enquiry Form.