Being told that you are going to lose an arm or a leg may be one of the most devastating thing a person can hear in Baltimore. After all, we rely on our limbs for virtually everything including walking, working, feeding ourselves and a myriad of other things. Having an amputation performed is hard enough, but knowing it could have been avoided can be absolutely devastating.
One woman knows this all too well. She had both of her arms amputated at the elbows and her legs amputated after she was infected with a flesh-eating bacteria known as necrotizing fasciitis during a C-section in 2007. She also had to have several internal organs removed including her gallbladder, uterus and part of her colon during more than the 40 surgeries to which she has been subjected. The infection can be life threatening and commonly affects the appendages and abdominal wall.
The woman filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical staff who cared for her at the hospital. She alleged that the staff did not properly monitor her condition nor report on the seriousness of it. She also says that they did not perform an adequate exam on her wound.
She recently reached a $9.5 million settlement with the nurses, lawyers, and OB-GYN group she sued. The settlement will be applied toward the woman’s medical bills and trusts set up for her two daughters. Hopefully with the help of this money, the woman will be able to find financial security and not have to worry about how she is going to pay her medical bills.
Source: Lowell Sun, “Woman who lost limbs to flesh-eating disease agrees to drop lawsuit,” Lisa Redmond, Sep. 6, 2013
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