Failure to Diagnose Lawsuit: 7 Year Old Left Blind After Botched Meningitis Case!

Here is another upsetting story. 

This time it is about an out-of-state seven-year-old boy who suffered at the hands of an incompetent doctor and medical staff.  Yesterday, I wrote about how AFTERCARE is JUST as important if not more important sometimes than the actual surgery which a patient undergoes.  Today, I am discussing cases where a patient is sick and the circumstances are different.  You CAN have a medical malpractice case in an emergency or in cases where there is a tight time constraint.  It isn’t just when you agree to surgery or undergo a procedure with a doctor.  Even if that means you are REALLY sick, you can still have a medical malpractice claim if the medical staff failed to follow what a reasonably competent physician in the locality would have done.
           
In this case, parents took her child to a doctor with complaints of severe headaches, temperature, and other various symptoms.  The doctor diagnosed the child with an ear infection and provided treatment for that condition.  However, the child’s headaches continued to get worse and worse.  The parents took their child back to the doctor but his receptionist turned them away, saying that the medication will slowly yet surely take effect and everything will be fine.
           
However, the child did not have an ear infection.  The little boy actually had bacterial meningitis.  As you probably know, meningitis is a very serious condition which causes inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.  This is a VERY dangerous condition.  Here, because the doctor did not quickly treat the child for meningitis and the child ended up BLIND! 

The family’s attorney said this case is upsetting because the doctor missed very clear signs.  But also that a doctor’s receptionist should NEVER be turning away patients, particularly very young patients with troubling symptoms, because the receptionist is just NOT qualified to be giving medical opinions or prohibiting people from getting medical attention!

But what do you think?!  I welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@mmolaw.net.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.