Is sepsis misdiagnosis a medical negligence case?

Sepsis occurs when an existing infection triggers a chain reaction throughout your body. Without timely treatment, sepsis can have devastating consequences and can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and even death. Often, sepsis arises due to the failure to treat an infection quickly enough, or when a patient has undergone an operation and harmful bacteria have entered the bloodstream during surgery. However, sometimes sepsis itself can be misdiagnosed by medical professionals.

Here, we explain whether the misdiagnosis of sepsis is classed as medical negligence, and what to do if you or a loved one had sepsis that was misdiagnosed.

Sepsis and the responsibility of hospital staff

According to the UK Sepsis Trust, there are around 150,000 cases of sepsis each year, with many cases proving fatal. Sepsis is commonly developed in hospitals, as hospitals hold may patients who are at risk of developing sepsis. These include people who have just had a surgical procedure and women who have just given birth, or patients with a significantly impaired immune system. Hospital staff are responsible for checking for signs of infection and treating it quickly in order to prevent sepsis from developing. Ignoring or missing symptoms of an infection that then leads to sepsis is a very common type of medical negligence case.

However, hospital staff also hold the responsibility of treating sepsis as soon as it occurs and diagnosing it as quickly as possible. For example, a patient may have been admitted to the hospital with an existing case of sepsis. Hospital staff may fail to recognise the infection as sepsis, and a patient may then suffer serious health consequences that may have been preventable with the correct treatment. In other instances, a hospital patient may have developed sepsis in the hospital that may have been unpreventable, however, hospital staff did not diagnose the sepsis quickly enough, which then led to serious health issues or even fatality.

Is sepsis misdiagnosis classed as medical negligence?

The misdiagnosis of sepsis or a delay in diagnosing it can then lead to a delay in treating it. Delays in diagnosing sepsis may leave the patient in a critical condition for a long time, which can have devasting consequences. In 2015, Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust and a frontline consultant outlined that if diagnosed and treated in the first hour following presentation with sepsis, a patient has more than an 80% survival rate. After the sixth hour, this decreases to a 30% survival rate.

Sepsis misdiagnosis amounts to a breach in the duty of care towards a patient. If you or someone you know have developed sepsis that was misdiagnosed, you may be eligible to pursue a sepsis negligence claim. You can find out more about making a claim below.

Do you think you have a valid sepsis misdiagnosis claim? Find out whether you may be eligible for compensation in our guide Can you make a sepsis negligence claim?

Examples of sepsis misdiagnosis

Sepsis can often be misdiagnosed due to the following:

• Blood pressure was not obtained promptly.
• Serum lactate and full blood count was not measured.
• Symptoms of sepsis are missed or misinterpreted.
• Doctors misinterpret a sepsis test result.
• Urine output was measured inaccurately.
• Blood cultures were not taken.

The impact of sepsis misdiagnosis

Even when treated promptly, sepsis can result in life-changing consequences to the patient’s health. However, a delayed sepsis diagnosis or misdiagnosis increases the risk of very serious health consequences.

A delayed or incorrect sepsis diagnosis can often even result in an individual having to make major lifestyle adaptations to cope with the long-term implications, which can include amputation due to tissue death or gangrene.

Permanent organ damage can be another consequence of a delayed sepsis misdiagnosis. If sepsis is not identified quickly, this can ultimately lead to septic shock organ failure. This can cause an individual to require lifelong dialysis treatment, or can even be fatal.

Making a claim

If a misdiagnosed sepsis case or a delayed sepsis diagnosis significantly impacts a person’s life or leads to a fatality, you are entitled to take appropriate legal action. For anyone affected in this way, we would recommend talking to a clinical negligence claims specialist such as Wake Smith as soon as possible to determine the strength of your case. Working with a medical negligence law firm can increase your chance of success.

You can find out more about the steps to take to make a sepsis negligence claim in our guide How to make a sepsis negligence claim.

How we can help

Wake Smith has a dedicated team of medical negligence solicitors who can offer advice and represent you on matters pertaining to medical negligence. If court proceedings are necessary, the experienced Wake Smith team will be able to present your case at every level, including the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Justice.

Do you suspect you have been a victim of sepsis misdiagnosis? Contact us here today to find out how we can help.

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