Question my dad is 89 yrs. old. he fell and broke his hip approx. 7 mos. ago. the surgeon on hospital staff did the surgery and did a partial hip replacement. he was placed in a skilled nursing facility for rehab. for about 3mos. at most. within 10 days he displaced his hip 3 times returning to the hospital each time in severe pain. two times hip was popped back into place by the emergency dr. on call after calling surgeon for direction. 3rd time hip was dislocated and a trip to the e.r. my brother demanded to speak to the surgeon (on the phone) and told him this was not right. something needed to be done. the surgeon then did exploratory surgery the next morning finding that he had put in the wrong size ball. the surgeon then put in a smaller size and re-attached the muscle, etc. which had been torn. a few days later wound was oozing and he had MRSA. My dad was then quarantined in his rehab facility and put on intravenous vancomycin for 6 wks. at the same time finding out that he has VRS, also which is another type of urinary track infection that never heals but does colognize after sometime. it is very contagious. by now we are 3rd month of rehab. finally, he is released to an assisted living facility because of his use of a walker (his home is not handicap equipped with wide doorways) to live with my mother. he goes to his regularly scheduled doctor visit miles away and surgeon tells him everything looks great. however, approx. 4 weeks later after leaving the rehab center and a week or two after seeing surgeon and getting a clean bill the wound starts to ooze again. back to the hospital and another surgery by the same surgeon saying that he needs to clean the wound site. again another rehab facility is needed but none are available that have a private room for a MRSA patient. the only thing we can come up with is to let Dad stay at the assisted living facility he is in but they put him in the alzheimer unit for 6 weeks and bring in a skilled nurse for a limited period. He was able to go to the bathroom by himself which enabled us to leave him there. however, this was all out of pocket cost wise for my parents. during that time my father kept complaining about his hip hurting more than usual but surgeon called for x-ray (although he did not seem to remember what the results were when i talked to him) and the nurse said they did not find anything unusual. my dad was once again given a clean bill of health although my dad consistently complained about the pain in his hip. finally my mother says no more going back to that surgeon and asks their heart doctor to take over my dad's care so we can find what is wrong. this heart doctor then runs tests, checks meds, a scan, then an aspiration of the hip and finds the MRSA is BACK AGAIN within a short period of time.
now, a new hospital and a new surgeon come into play. this surgeon B takes my dad's hip replacement out and puts in a spacer filled with antibiotics. my dad will be immobile (no bone in his hip) for at least 8 weeks until they can make sure there is no more MRSA (but not a guarantee). this surgeon B said the MRSA had never gone away. he also said it had gotten into the bone of the socket so now things are worse. hopefully, once the MRSA is gone he will go back in and put a new hip replacement in and replace the whole hip this time. that will be a 2 wks to a month after my dad's blood tests come back continously free of MRSA. but what if the MRSA never goes away?
this is a horror story in itself. but my dad was released from the last hospital earlier than they thought he would be (because he came through the surgery so well) we had to scramble to find another skilled nursing facility and again no one had an available room because of the MRSA except two facilities with 3 star ratings (which we did not know until afterwards). we took the one closest to home but still 50 minutes away for my mom to visit and the rest of the family. there in itself is another story of the lack of care there.
this has all been a nightmare for my poor father who has been so srtong through all this but now is losing his will fight.
do we have enough to file a malpractice suite against the first surgeon and the hospital? we were told by hospital staff both during emergency stays and while during a scan that this surgeon has had others patients who have suffered through the similar things. the first hospital was horrible in their care of my dad, too. we complained numerous times to their administration about the care. we only got good care when we complained.
you advice is desperately needed.
thank you
Answer *Your story is fairly common. You should certainly see a malpractice lawyer. However, I am not at all sure you will win a lawsuit. But let the lawyers you talk to you tell you that. You must see a lawyer because if that story about other cases at that hospital and with that surgeon, are true, you will have a good chance for compensation. Lawyers will have heard of this, that is if they follow what's going on in their area.
MRSA infections following hip surgery are not rare. They do happen. The biggest problem for your lawyer will be to establish that the infection came from that first surgery in that hospital. That is why I say talk to several lawyers before you give up. The more lawsuits filed against a doctor and hospital, the greater the chance for compensation for your father's injury. So, see a couple of malpractice lawyers in your area. Keep in mind that doctors work with orthopedistrs in their injury cases (auto, falls etc) and local lawyers will be reluctant to sue a local orthopedist. So, see lawyers in another County, but it has to be within your State.
My guess is that somewhere along the line someone put the staphyloccocus aureus into your father's hip. Who is the big question. Or, because it was not found until after he was in the nursing facility, someone there carried the infection to him. Your lawyer is going to have to spend a lot of money in his efforts to find out what the source of the infection was, and may never find out. So, do not be surprised if you can do nothing about this. However, as I have said above, you must talk to a couple of lawyers at least. That rumor you have heard is probably true.
