Lawyer Compensation for Baumannii infection

It is certainly not a rarity, once you have entered the hospital, to be faced with a disease other than the one that forcedyou to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, it happens that doctors realize that something else should be investigated when caring for a different disease.

And most of the time a sigh of relief is breathed because entering the hospital has prevented to become sicker than expected.

However, when the different disease is contracted inside the hospital due to itsemployees’ ascertained negligence, or due to uncontrollable risks, thenthere is no relief but most often a great discomfort anddisbelief.

Numerous pathogens commonly live in hospitals

In addition tothe striking and rare cases of operations carried out on the wrong organ or based on completely incorrect diagnosis, there are also diseases contracted as a result of exposure to pathogens living in hospital environments, and these are the most frequent cases.

Over the years, several statistics have been grouped cases of hospital infection by type of wards and bacteria in order to establish increasingly effective prevention protocols, unfortunately not binding and thereof not uniformlyadopted.

Not respected protocols and preventive measures, bacteria manage to survive

Patients generally come into contact with certain types of bacteria present in taps, medical instruments, or other environments and develop some serious infections. Some of them are eradicated with simple antibiotics, others need stricter treatment and cannot always be solved.

These risks represent a great bad publicity forthe hospitalknown for havingthe higher infections rate, as well as a considerable economic loss, if we consider that it implies the rising of compensation and insurance premiums.

Compensation for damages caused by infection

The solutions and, more desirablely, the preventive measures taken by hospitals, depend mainly on  the type of bacteria. Among the most feared and therefore among those that require more radical approach to the problem, is included the acinetobacterbaumannii or more briefly, baumannii.

It is actually a rather frequent microorganism in soil and water, which manages to survive on surfaces for a very long time, thanks to a high ability to adapt. If we went to detect the percentage of baumannii-type bacteria in a hospital room, we would be impressed: sheets, pajamas, bedside tables, taps, medical instruments such as flow meters or catheters; no surface can declare itselfsafe.

For those hospitalized in not too weakhealth conditions, or not requiring intervention or not having open injuries, it is sufficient a good disinfection of the environment and some precautions (such as not using or letting the hot water of the taps flow for a long time) should the presence of the bacterium be detected.

However, when it comes to weaker patients withcompromised immune defenses,thebacterium proves to be particularly aggressive. Therefore baumannii has became the main cause of hospital infection.

Precisely the skin is the surface in which the proliferation of the bacterium is most easily found, especially in patients with extensive injuries due to burns; a condition that in itself, due to the total lack of epidermis to be a protective barrier, provides the habitat of choice for the aggression of the infectious agent.

What is worse, baumannii is proving increasingly resistant to antibiotics but above all it is able to proliferate and aggregate into colonies in surgical instruments.

To evaluate the possibility of compensation for damages, you can contact the law firm.

How to prevent risk becomes guidelines

Hospitals are running for protocols thatcan significantly reduce the risk of contamination. Scrupulous hygiene, both of the person and of the environment is certainly the standardprecaution.

In this case, however, considering that baumannii infections affect the most fragile patients, who in many cases are also those who need more catheters, dressings, tubes and other biomedical material, further precautions are needed.

For example, patients who are positive for the bacterium are placed in isolation and the surfaces with which they have come into contact carefully disinfected with targeted products. The problem is the resistance of the bacterium and its easy transmissibility.

U.S. study introduces a superbacterium-resistant molecule

Being a condition that unites patients inevery country, from the highly industrialized to the most backward in terms of hospital reception, it is desirable that uniform prevention protocols be adopted in all hospitals, to prevent the relocation of patients from one facility to another contributing to an indiscriminate and uncontrollable spread.

In addition, research should be stepped up on the type of antibiotics that can defeat infections that arise from the bacterium and reduce the often ominous course of those who contract the disease and find themselves dealing with pneumonia or meningitis.

That's the task focused by University of Southern California’s scientists who havedeveloped a research study on a molecule called rifabutinthat can adequatelyresist the superbacterium. In 35 years of scientific evidence associated with baumannii pathologies,this antibiotic drug had never beenused but has so far proved to be the most effective.

In fact, its main use is intended for the treatment of tuberculosis, but once used against the bacterium, scientists have found that it is induced to convey the molecule inside, deceiving its own defenses and then self-devolved.

Sample studies needed to test the human body's reaction

This would be a discovery of the highest scientific value because it would help to reduce the risks of hospitalization and gradually eliminate one of the highest causes of mortality arising from the hospital environment. What remains to be done are sample applications that can determine whether efficacy on the human body offers the same results as that tested in the laboratory.

If you too have been the victim of a hospital-acquired Baumannii infection, you can contact us to discuss compensation options.