You may be relieved to hear the good news that you did not experience any serious complications during your orthopedic surgery. However, you may not be out of the woods just yet, so to speak. That is, after any type of surgery, there is the potential risk of a surgical site infection. This may not be a big deal and easily treatable, so long as your attending surgeon catches it on time. With that being said, please continue reading to learn the consequences of a failure to diagnose orthopedic infections and how an experienced New York City orthopedic injury malpractice attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C., can help you course-correct this unfortunate surgical outcome.
How do postoperative orthopedic infections typically occur?
As a patient, you hold a certain threshold of duty to practice proper wound care after your orthopedic procedure. This means routinely cleaning it and monitoring potential early signs of infection, such as redness, warmth, drainage, increased pain, or foul odor around the incision site.
What’s more, your underlying health history, like diabetes, obesity, an immune disorder, or smoking, may make you a higher risk for postoperative orthopedic infections. However, this does not and should not overpower the fact that your orthopedic surgeon may have acted negligently and prompted the origination of this infection.
For example, during your procedure, your surgeon may fail to follow a hospital’s strict sterilization protocols. So, there may be bacteria present on their operating tools or implanted devices that remain in your body (i.e., screws, plates, artificial joints, etc). This is not to mention the risk of hospital-acquired infections that they failed to prevent or address.
Or, in postoperative care, your surgeon may fail to wash their hands properly when examining your surgical wound. And when you express your concerns about early signs of infection, they may fail to order cultures, interpret imaging results properly, offer sound wound care instructions, or schedule adequate follow-up appointments.
What happens if there is a failure to diagnose infections after my orthopedic surgery?
Ideally, your orthopedic surgeon should diagnose and rectify your infection within the first 30 days. After that, it may be far more difficult to treat, as it may spread to the surgical implant, your bones, or your muscles. Subsequently, you may be left suffering from the following damages:
- You may have to take long-term antibiotics, which come with their own set of side effects.
- You may contract sepsis, which carries its own set of life-threatening complications.
- You may be left with a permanent functional impairment, which comes with chronic pain.
- You may have to amputate a limb to prevent a life-threatening infection from spreading.
- You may have to undergo an extensive reconstruction surgery or implant removal surgery.
Given any of these outcomes, it may most definitely be a sound legal response to sue your negligent orthopedic surgeon for medical malpractice. There is no need to wait any longer to hire a skilled New York City orthopedic injury malpractice attorney if you are already ready to get on with your medical malpractice case. Reach out to our law firm, Mark L. Bodner, P.C., at your earliest possible convenience.