If you required either a below the knee or foot amputation because of delayed treatment of an infection or fracture in your foot, you may have a medical malpractice claim. In determining whether you do have a medical malpractice claim a major factor is whether your treating doctors were negligent for the delay in diagnosis and treatment of your infection or fracture. Another important factor is whether your foot or leg could have been saved even if you received earlier treatment of your infection or fracture.
Signs of a foot infection include a foot that is swollen, has redness, or has toe discoloration. You may also have a fever, a foul odor coming from your foot, or pus and drainage. If your foot infection is not diagnosed and treated inn a timely manner, it could progress into a worsening infection or even become gangrenous. When you have a gangrene foot infection this means that the tissue of your foot is not getting blood flow resulting in tissue death. A gangrenous foot infection can lead to amputation to stop the spread of the gangrene – whether it be the amputation of toes, the entire foot, or a below the knee amputation.
Whether your foot infection should have been caught and treated with antibiotics or otherwise sooner will depend on the facts of your case. For example how obvious were your symptoms, and did your treating doctors or nurses listen to and address any follow-up complaints you had about your foot not improving or getting worse.
As noted earlier, even if you had an infection that should have been diagnosed and treated sooner, it still must be determined if earlier treatment could have prevented your worsening infection and amputation. You may have additional medical problems that would make controlling your foot infection difficult even with timely diagnosis and treatment of it. In order to determine this, your attorney will review your medical records and consult with medical experts.
Besides an infection, a delay in treatment of a foot fracture could also lead to an amputation. When you have a foot fracture you may have swelling and redness in the foot, your foot may be painful, and you could have difficulty walking and putting weight on your foot. Another indication that you could have a foot fracture is the way in which you injured your foot. For example, if you fell from a large height and landed on your feet, your treating doctors should perform X-Rays, CT scans, or MRIs to rule out a foot fracture.
If you have a foot fracture you may need to be placed in a boot or cast and made non weight bearing while you let your foot heal. You may need surgery depending on how bad the fracture is. Receiving the appropriate medical treatment for a foot fracture early on is important because walking on a fractured foot can lead to further damage to it. If the damage is extensive enough you may develop a condition known as Charcot foot. If the damage in your foot becomes bad enough, surgery may not be able to repair it from continuing to break down. In this scenario you could require a foot amputation.
With delayed treatment of a foot fracture, your treating doctors may have been negligent in not considering a fracture given your complaints, in not ordering the proper imaging studies to rule out a fracture, in missing a fracture in the imaging of your foot, or for not listening to and addressing follow-up complaints you had that should indicate you had a foot fracture. As with an infection, whether there was negligence in the treatment of your foot fracture will depend on the facts of your case. Also as with the case of a foot infection, your attorney will also need to show that if your foot fracture was diagnosed and treated earlier, you could have avoided the amputation of your foot.
If losing your foot is going to cause you to have lots of future medical costs, you can claim those costs as damages in your medical malpractice claim. If you cannot work anymore due to losing your foot you can also claim those future lost wages as damages.
If you suffered an amputation due to delayed treatment of a foot infection or fracture, the attorneys at The Thistle Law Firm are here to take your call and answer your questions at 215-568-6800.