Klebsiella Pneumoniae Damage Compensation Lawyer

The umpteenth case of death for nosocomial infection involves a unlucky lady.

Being alone at home, during one of her usual home cleaning days, she decides to remove the curtains from their rods and wash them. To carry out this operation, the lady takes the ladder she keeps in the house mainly for this type of eventualities, climbs on top of it and begins to disassemble the heavy sheets from the sticks.

Maybe she did not make sure that the ladder was in perfect balance before climbing it, or she moved too much to unhook the curtain, it is not known. The fact is that the lady loses her balance and falls ruinously on the floor beating her face and neck.

It was very difficult for our lady to be able to call for help and be transported to the hospital, because the pain in her neck is unbearable and prevents her from making any movement.

Cervical Vertebral Decompression Surgery

Rescuers soon acknowledge that the trauma is important and she must be immobilized with caution before transporting her to the Hospital of Taranto. Entering the Emergency Room, the lady is informed that surgery will be necessary to decompress the cervical vertebrae. Relatives are frightened, they never imagined that routine home cleaning could turn into such a nefarious event, but they can't help but willingly accept that it be treated surgically without wasting time.

The Hospital has a good prognosis on the success of the surgery; the health professionals explain that it is still a very delicate area of the body, but the good general health of the lady makes everyone optimistic.

However, to alleviate the consequences of the operation, a few days later the lady is forced to go back under the knife. Surgeons, in fact, in order to contain the brain pressure due to head trauma, must apply a device in the skull, through a bilateral surgical procedure called external ventricular derivation.

Only a few days go by in which the lady's condition deteriorates dramatically: shaken by very high fever, she will no longer be able to regain consciousness before she dies.

Death from infection after surgery

Relatives are shocked by the lady's death. No one had envisaged to them that there could be such an inaustic and rapid course as a result of this type of intervention.

They can't believe they're going to come home and find the ladder still leaning against the wall and the curtains to wait for someone to settle them.

There is a reasonable suspicion that death is not a direct consequence of the surgery, at least not of the riskiness associated with the surgical procedure itself. They fear that there may be another cause, to be found perhaps in one of those fearsome bacteria that often attack debilitated patients.

Klebsiella Pneumoniae Damages Lawyer

They talk about it with their lawyer, who specializes in compensation for damages arising from negligent practices that compromise the outcome of hospital treatment.

Through an expertise, the lawyer identifies the cause of death in meningo-encephalic infection with Klebsiella Pneumoniae, a bacterium found into the patient's organism leading to death and that lives almost exclusively in a hospital environment.

When the claim for damages was made, the lawyer successfully argued that the institution had not observed the common rules of diligence and prudence necessary to prevent the death of the patient, i.e. it did not adapt to those protocols in force to combat and prevent infections in the hospital environment.

While the ASL, which has taken legal action for the Hospital, has rejected any charges arguing that all protocols had been properly applied and that there had been no negligence in terms of prevention, the Judge ordered the ASL to pay damages.

The Court of First Instance grants 800.000 euros in compensation

With judgment no. 2241/2019, the Court of Taranto has in fact recognized to relatives the sum of almost 800.000 euros to pay for the loss of their loved one.

It is impossible to accept the thesis that the bacterium lives regularly in hospital environments and that it is a calculated risk that of contracting the infection: scientifically it has been proven that transmission occurs only where there is no proper environmental sanitization.

According to the Court, the Hospital has not proven compliance with the common rules of diligence and prudence necessary to comply with the contractual commitment with the patient, subject to the rules of the Civil Code like any other contract under private law.

With hospitalization, or visit, the Hospital undertakes to provide the patient with a service that also includes the ancillary obligation of protection, which can correctly fulfill only where it demonstrates to observe the protocols universally recognized as effective for the prevention of infections in a hospital environment.

The Same Public Prosecutor's Office had already investigated similar cases

A constantly growing phenomenon is suing hospitals before courts for complications due to nosocomial infections. A greater awareness of the health rules to be respected or of the rights of the patient, contributes to extending throughout Italy the multiplication of legal actions aimed at obtaining compensation for damages.