Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I had a c-section on 8/3 and had DD.
DH and i are starting to recieve bills. My antibiotic treatments at home are $6,000 to make sure the staph doesn't come back and that isn't counting the $75,000+ for the last 6 days I was in the hospital for the staph infection i contracted from my c-section that landed me in ICU Saturday. C-section was 8/3 and I was re-admitted to the hospital on 8/13 until yesterday. DH and I can't afford this and feel we shouldn't have to, if they had performed proper infection control procedures, i might have never gotten the staph. How else would i have gotten staph infection in my uterus?? My husband and I just feel the hospital should be held accountable for the bill for curing the infection.

What do you think?? Should DH and I contact a a lawyer?
I don't care about getting money from them, i just want this hospital bill paid even though i am very,very mad that I was taken away from my newborn for a week. I am so stressed!!

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I would contact a lawyer I agree that the hospital should be covering this expense.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Absolutely contact a med mal attorney to see if you have a case. I am not sure what the laws are where you are at, but if you can show negligence on the hospital's part, especially gross negligence you can recover. You won't cover for not seeing your DD per se, but you might get pain and suffering for gross negligence. Call your local Bar association for referrals. Most attorneys will give you a free consult and I think med mal is on contingency, not retainer, which would probably mean if the attorney thought you had a case, you would not have to pay up front.

Here is the issue-can you prove that if not for the negligent actions of the hospital, you would not have developed the infection. Moreover, even if you would have developed it, would it have been this bad, and did the hospital's actions cause you pain and suffering. It has to be more likely than not that the hospital caused this for you to prevail in court. Hopefully if you put in a notice of claim, the hospital insurance company will pay up.

HTH and Good luck and feel better Taryn!

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Absolutely contact a med mal attorney to see if you have a case. I am not sure what the laws are where you are at, but if you can show negligence on the hospital's part, especially gross negligence you can recover. You won't cover for not seeing your DD per se, but you might get pain and suffering for gross negligence. Call your local Bar association for referrals. Most attorneys will give you a free consult and I think med mal is on contingency, not retainer, which would probably mean if the attorney thought you had a case, you would not have to pay up front.

Here is the issue-can you prove that if not for the negligent actions of the hospital, you would not have developed the infection. Moreover, even if you would have developed it, would it have been this bad, and did the hospital's actions cause you pain and suffering. It has to be more likely than not that the hospital caused this for you to prevail in court. Hopefully if you put in a notice of claim, the hospital insurance company will pay up.

HTH and Good luck and feel better Taryn!

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Posted by mommyin2009

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Absolutely contact a med mal attorney to see if you have a case. I am not sure what the laws are where you are at, but if you can show negligence on the hospital's part, especially gross negligence you can recover. You won't cover for not seeing your DD per se, but you might get pain and suffering for gross negligence. Call your local Bar association for referrals. Most attorneys will give you a free consult and I think med mal is on contingency, not retainer, which would probably mean if the attorney thought you had a case, you would not have to pay up front.

Here is the issue-can you prove that if not for the negligent actions of the hospital, you would not have developed the infection. Moreover, even if you would have developed it, would it have been this bad, and did the hospital's actions cause you pain and suffering. It has to be more likely than not that the hospital caused this for you to prevail in court. Hopefully if you put in a notice of claim, the hospital insurance company will pay up.

HTH and Good luck and feel better Taryn!

I was fine until i had the c-section on the 3rd and i don't know how else wi would have gotten staoh growing in my uterus except for that c-section. It had to have come from that c-section, there is no other complication. My care in the hospital wasn't exactly great. They coukdn't figure a permanent diagnosis of my lungs. They kept teling us it was staph related pnuemonia and than it was just fliud in the lungs and kept switching until the day before i left. I had went to my OB last monday with a fever and pain and he never took any vitals just gave me demerol and sent me on my way until thursday when i demanded the OB check me out and that when the internal showed bad stuff coming out of me and sent me to the hospital. What do you think?

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Posted by mommyin2009

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Absolutely contact a med mal attorney to see if you have a case. I am not sure what the laws are where you are at, but if you can show negligence on the hospital's part, especially gross negligence you can recover. You won't cover for not seeing your DD per se, but you might get pain and suffering for gross negligence. Call your local Bar association for referrals. Most attorneys will give you a free consult and I think med mal is on contingency, not retainer, which would probably mean if the attorney thought you had a case, you would not have to pay up front.

Here is the issue-can you prove that if not for the negligent actions of the hospital, you would not have developed the infection. Moreover, even if you would have developed it, would it have been this bad, and did the hospital's actions cause you pain and suffering. It has to be more likely than not that the hospital caused this for you to prevail in court. Hopefully if you put in a notice of claim, the hospital insurance company will pay up.

HTH and Good luck and feel better Taryn!

I was fine until i had the c-section on the 3rd and i don't know how else wi would have gotten staoh growing in my uterus except for that c-section. It had to have come from that c-section, there is no other complication. My care in the hospital wasn't exactly great. They coukdn't figure a permanent diagnosis of my lungs. They kept teling us it was staph related pnuemonia and than it was just fliud in the lungs and kept switching until the day before i left. I had went to my OB last monday with a fever and pain and he never took any vitals just gave me demerol and sent me on my way until thursday when i demanded the OB check me out and that when the internal showed bad stuff coming out of me and sent me to the hospital. What do you think?

Is your OB connected to the hospital and was he the one who delivered you? I am thinking you have a claim against him personally! It sounds like he is negligent. It does sound like if not but for the negligence during delivery you would have been okay. Do you have permanent injury?

Message edited 8/19/2009 5:26:51 PM.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Do you mind if I ask which hospital?

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Unfortunately there isn't much that can be done. My Aunt also got infected with a staph infection while staying at a local hospital. She ended up in the ICU for 3 weeks on a respirator. She almost died. She contacted a lawyer and they sat down and discussed things. There was no way to find out how or where she contracted the infection. Could have happened any where in the hospital at any time. If you can find a lawyer that will sit down with you and talk over things, go for it. Things may be different where you live. But medical malpractice is a difficult thing to fight. I spent 2 years doing it after my Dad passed away due to a hospital screw up. And it gets very expensive, very quickly. Good luck.

Message edited 8/19/2009 8:30:11 PM.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I would contact a lawyer, it sounds like you guys have a case.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I asked on the other post...but why is your health insurance not covering this?

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I would try contacting a lawyer. So sorry that you are going through this

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Wow Taryn, I'm so sorry you are going through this. I hope that you are able to make a case.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Posted by mommyin2009

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Posted by mommyin2009

Posted by munchkinfacemama

Absolutely contact a med mal attorney to see if you have a case. I am not sure what the laws are where you are at, but if you can show negligence on the hospital's part, especially gross negligence you can recover. You won't cover for not seeing your DD per se, but you might get pain and suffering for gross negligence. Call your local Bar association for referrals. Most attorneys will give you a free consult and I think med mal is on contingency, not retainer, which would probably mean if the attorney thought you had a case, you would not have to pay up front.

Here is the issue-can you prove that if not for the negligent actions of the hospital, you would not have developed the infection. Moreover, even if you would have developed it, would it have been this bad, and did the hospital's actions cause you pain and suffering. It has to be more likely than not that the hospital caused this for you to prevail in court. Hopefully if you put in a notice of claim, the hospital insurance company will pay up.

HTH and Good luck and feel better Taryn!

I was fine until i had the c-section on the 3rd and i don't know how else wi would have gotten staoh growing in my uterus except for that c-section. It had to have come from that c-section, there is no other complication. My care in the hospital wasn't exactly great. They coukdn't figure a permanent diagnosis of my lungs. They kept teling us it was staph related pnuemonia and than it was just fliud in the lungs and kept switching until the day before i left. I had went to my OB last monday with a fever and pain and he never took any vitals just gave me demerol and sent me on my way until thursday when i demanded the OB check me out and that when the internal showed bad stuff coming out of me and sent me to the hospital. What do you think?

Is your OB connected to the hospital and was he the one who delivered you? I am thinking you have a claim against him personally! It sounds like he is negligent. It does sound like if not but for the negligence during delivery you would have been okay. Do you have permanent injury?

He has been my OB the whole pregnancy and when my water broke, he was on vacation so his collegue delivered DD via-c-section and they are both connected to the hospital and deliver babies there all the time and my OB took over care after that. My OB was the one who slacked on doing vitals and checkign for infection i think that monday when he sent me away. Im not sure of i should claim against the hospital or OB??

ETA: I don't have permanent injury but for the next 2 weeks i have to do IV treatment at home every 8 hours via a pick line inserted from my arm to my vein in my heart to ensure the staph infection is gone. Plus im still mad i lost so much time with my little DD.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

I am so sorry you are going through this Like the others have said, I honestly don't think you have a case against the hospital & trying to prove that this happened at the C-section will be hard to prove.

At the same time, I would contact a lawyer & see if there is something you can do against the Dr's especially since it seems part of your issue was neglect. I can't even imagine how DH & you feel right now

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??

Posted by mommyin2009

Posted by Sneezy

Posted by jellybean1420

I asked on the other post...but why is your health insurance not covering this?

I'm wondering the same thing. This shouldn't be your expense if you have insurance - even crummy insurance should cover this.

The health insurance is covering 80% of the hospitailization but DH and I still have the other 20% to worry about paying. My at home antibiotic treatments are $6,000 alone and the bill for that is coming tomorrow. Poor DH is soooo stressed.

Re: Should the hospital be held accountable?? WWYD??