Like other Houston parents, you took your child to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. You expected him or her to leave the hospital in better condition than when you took your child in. At some point, doctors assured you that your child was well enough to go home.
Everything seemed okay for a while. You knew your child may need extra time to heal at home. Then your child started getting worse. Could it be sepsis?
What to watch for
Your skin protects you from bacteria entering your body. Any break in the skin can lead to an infection, which can turn into sepsis. If your child exhibits any of the following symptoms, he or she may need immediate medical attention:
- Little to no urine output
- A fever of 100.4 or higher
- Rapid heartbeat
- General illness
- A previous injury such as a cut or scrape
- Shortness of breath
Your child will feel excruciatingly bad, which is based on how others have said they feel with sepsis. You should know that children do die from sepsis. It is estimated that somewhere around 7,000 children do so each year. The instances of sepsis in children also increase by approximately 8% each year.
Like adults, children who survive sepsis often suffer from lifelong repercussions. Your child could be one of the approximately 47% of children of sepsis who require additional hospitalization at some point. Moreover, around 34% begin to exhibit cognitive issues at somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 days after hospitalization for sepsis.
Did doctors miss something?
Infections that lead to sepsis after a stay in the hospital can result from a number of things. If your child had surgery, the original infection could have resulted from not receiving the proper monitoring post-surgery. Perhaps the surgical instruments did not go through the proper sterilization prior to surgery. Even if your child did not have surgery but remained in the hospital, he or she could have contracted a hospital-acquired infection such as MRSA. In fact, any number of things could have gone wrong.
If you suspect that your child’s doctors did not provide your child with the appropriate standard of care, which led to his or her bout of sepsis, it may be worth your while to discuss the situation with an attorney with experience in medical malpractice. A careful review of the circumstances could reveal that filing a claim against the parties believed responsible may be appropriate.