North Carolina

Alice Lloyd

Alice went to a walk in clinic where she presented 4 out of 5 criteria for sepsis, a blood infection. Rather than treating her or admitting her to a hospital, the clinic advised her to go to the emergency room in the event that her symptoms became worse. The next day Alice went to the local hospital where they noted that she had gone to a clinic the day before, yet they did not call the clinic for her test results. The hospital failed to diagnose her with a common blood infection (sepsis) for 16 hours while she waited in pain. At 3:00 am a doctor finally ordered antibiotics, but they were not administered for 2 more hours. At 5:00 am the nurses finally they gave her the simple antibiotics that would save her life. 2 days later she was flown to another hospital where the doctors had to amputate because the infection had gone unchecked for such an extended period of time. They took her legs above her knees, her left arm and all the fingers from her right hand, she still has one thumb. The case was settled.

August 2004