New York Medical Malpractice Lawyers
MRSA stands for “methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.”
This antibiotic-resistant bacterium can cause dangerous infections. Our
firm, Flanzig & Flanzig, LLP, handles medical malpractice cases involving
MRSA. Speak with a New York personal injury attorney from our legal team
to discuss your case. We are here to help you recover fair compensation
and peace of mind!
We proudly serve victims throughout New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn,
Bronx, Queens, and Long Island, and all surrounding areas in the Nassau
and Suffolk Counties.
Do I Have a MRSA-Related Case?
These are some of the common ways MRSA treatment can be mishandled:
Failure to recognize MRSA soft-tissue infection — Conventional teaching is to treat skin and soft-tissue infections
with agents such as cephalexin or cefazolin. Patients who fail to respond
require a culture and / or switch in treatment to include an agent that
covers MRSA such as vancomycin, trimethoprim-sulfa, or linezolid. Failure
or delay in doing so can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, osteomyelitis,
and other life-threatening complications and even death.
Patient with history of MRSA and recurrent soft-tissue infection is assumed
to have MRSA until proven otherwise — To treat such a patient who is suffering from a wound infection
with an agent such as cephalexin delays appropriate therapy and subjects
the patient to unnecessary complications.
Failure to appropriately screen for MRSA — It is now recommended that patients who undergo hardware or prosthesis
material placement including vascular grafts be screened pre-operation
for MRSA. If the screen is positive, the options are decolonization —
which can take several days to a week — or use of prophylactic vancomycin
pre-operatively. Failure to take either of these steps can lead to hardware
and wound infection.
Delays in recognition and treatment of MRSA bloodstream infections — Unfortunately, delays still occur, often with devastating results.
No bacteremia with S. aureus, MRSA, or MSSA is ever considered a “skin
contaminant.” Such thinking was common years ago but has been shown
to be incorrect.
Failure to initiate draining for deep space infection — This can occur with MRSA or MSSA but is likely to be more devastating
Failure to recognize side effects and limitations of therapies such as
linezolid and vancomycin — Linezolid, for example, should never be used beyond two weeks due
to bone marrow toxicity. It is also bacteriostatic and not cidal, which
renders it suboptimal for osteomyelitis. Linezolid is not approved for
treatment of osteomyelitis by the United States Food & Drug Administration.
If you have developed MRSA and any of these or other problems occurred
during the diagnosis or treatment of MRSA, contact Flanzig & Flanzig, LLP