Pressure Sores & Medical Negligence

Pressure ulcers, also known as pressures sores or bedsores, are injuries to the skin and underlying tissue. They are caused by prolonged pressure on the skin.

This can occur from long duration in a bed and are not uncommon among hospital and nursing home patients.

There are four stages:

• Stage 1: pressure injuries are not open wounds.
• Stage 2: pressure injuries are open wounds.
• Stage 3: pressure injuries extend through the skin into deeper tissue and fat but do not reach muscle, tendon, or bone.
• Stage 4: pressure injuries extend to muscle, tendon, or bone

Symptoms of Pressure Sores

• Discolouration to part of the skin – those with pale skin usually get red patches and those with darker skin blue or purple patches. These patches do no turn white when pressed
• Patches of the skin that feel warm to the touch. They might also feel spongy or hard

The patchy area will be itchy and there may be some pain. Any signs of these should be brought to the attention of a medical professional.

Treatment

In serious cases, medical help is required. It is very important that medical assistance is sought as in the most severe cases they could develop blood poisoning and possibly be life-threatening.

Bringing a Claim for Medical Negligence in the Treatment of Pressure Sores

A medical professional owes a duty of care in discharging their services to their patients. It is where they fail in that duty that a case for medical negligence arises.

One needs to establish that the medical care received was below a satisfactory standard. The rule for that is that another medical professional would not have made the same errors, omissions, or bad decisions in your care and as a direct result of their actions you suffered injury or pain.

This will require you to obtain the opinion of an expert witness who can explain to a judge what the standard treatments and or procedures would be relevant for the pressure sores in question.

In a successful case, compensation can be awarded for the pain suffered by the injury or avoidable pain and suffering caused. There can also be Special Damages awarded. These arise for: loss of earnings; medical expenses; care costs and travel expenses. It is vital you retain receipts to prove these out-of-pocket expenses which were incurred resulting from the injury.   

Time Limit

Claims for medical negligence must be brought within two years, which is not a long time as it can take so long to get medical records, have the preparatory work concluded needed to commence such as case after obtaining the appropriate expert witness.