Patient Safety | 05.24.22
Wallingford Woman Who Lost 4 Limbs Sues Hospital, Claims Malpractice
by Patch
Carol Proto is suing Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., on claims of medical malpractice in treating her sepsis case, which resulted in the amputation of all four of her limbs. The Wallingford, Conn., woman was in good health when she entered Griffin Hospital a year ago last month for an elective diverticulitis surgery. She expected to return home just two days later. However, after contracting sepsis, she left the hospital a full month later "strapped to a stretcher, tethered to an oxygen tank, with black gangrene covering her feet and hands," a news release states. Proto was displaying signs of sepsis one day after her surgery, which the lawsuit contends should have been identified by medical personnel monitoring her vital signs and reviewing her test results. According to the suit, Proto had low blood pressure, worsening confusion, and kidney function that was at 50 percent of its pre-operative capacity. The lawsuit claims the facility's staff dismissed the symptoms as prolonged effects of anesthesia and did not "follow international sepsis care guidelines and Griffin Hospital's own screening criteria."
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