Jury Returns $534,000 Verdict After a Patient Has Surgery with Unsterile Surgical Tools
This is the “never” of all “never” events. Never events are classified as those medical errors that should never, under any circumstances, occur. Yet, 63-year-old Charles Blevins had to have another knee replacement surgery because of a “never” event that involved surgically unsterile medical equipment. Charles Blevins, 63, underwent outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery. Four days after the surgery, Blevins went to a hospital emergency room complaining of fever and a hot and swollen knee. He was diagnosed as having pseudomonas infection and required hospitalization for one month; during that time he received IV antibiotics. The infection, however, destroyed Blevins’s right knee joint, which necessitated a total knee replacement and required revision about a year later.
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