Fournier's Gangrene Treatment Negligence and Claiming Compensation
Sometimes antibiotics are not enough. Necrotising fasciitis in all its forms is a lethal illness. Emergency and dramatic medical care in the form of comprehensive tissue removal is essential as a matter of emergency.
Fournier's gangrene is a medical emergency
Fournier's gangrene is a perineal-focussed form of necrotising fasciitis, a life-threatening soft-tissue infection. A failure to provide adequate and timely medical care can prove catastrophic. Every delay risks the spread of the infection and undermines the patient's future quality of life.
Antibiotics alone are not sufficient to combat this appalling illness. Treatment and diagnosis errors, such as the following, may be regarded as negligent.
- Failing to treat an abscess adequately
- Failing to carry out an examination of the patient
- Failing to recognise the implications of symptoms of intense pain, swelling and skin discolouration
- Failing to understand and act upon the need for emergency specialist attention
- Providing inadequate treatment of a soft-tissue infection
Misdiagnosis and the life-changing consequences
If a medical professional misdiagnoses their patient's condition, either because they have failed to examine the patient or because they have misinterpreted the patient's symptoms, they may consider that antibiotics are sufficient response to an apparent infection.
Fournier's gangrene is a deep, soft-tissue infection which will not respond to antibiotics alone but requires complete surgical removal of all infected tissue in order to halt the further spread of the infection.
If such tissue debridement is delayed, due to misdiagnosis or the implementation of inadequate treatment, the infection will, indeed, spread, meaning that when surgery is finally commenced, the area of tissue loss is likely to be significantly greater.
In the case of fournier's gangrene, the physical integrity of the perineum, the genitals, the buttocks and the bowel are at risk. Extensive deformity may result, sexual function may be lost and the patient may require a stoma to provide bowel function.
The practical and psychological impact can be significant: the patient may struggle to cope with the trauma of what has happened to them; they may require some degree of care and they may find it difficult to work.
If the potentially traumatic consequences of fournier's gangrene are found to have been, in full or in part, the result of negligent medical treatment, it may be possible to make a claim for compensation.
Speak to a legal specialist
Specialists in medical negligence law, Glynns Solicitors can offer a wealth of expertise in necrotising fasciitis compensation claims.
Contact us today to talk to a solicitor, free of charge, about the possibility of making a claim.
Please call us free on 0800 234 3300 (or from a mobile
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