Meningitis & Sepsis Claims - Clinical Standards, Guidelines & Caselaw

Introduction

Sepsis is the body’s over-active inflammatory response to severe infection and can lead to organ failure and death. It arises frequently in a medico-legal context secondary to abdominal surgery, childbirth, infectious disease and post-surgical infection, for instance.

Earlier diagnosis and treatment (which may be by intravenous antibiotics, surgical source control, and/or treatment for shock) will generally lead to a better outcome. Patients who survive severe sepsis (particularly septic shock) can be left with long term symptoms including organ damage and chronic fatigue.

Meningitis and meningococcal disease claims have a significant overlap with sepsis, as these claims also arise from a delay in diagnosis and treatment of (generally bacterial) infection. Meningococcal septicaemia also causes sepsis. Outcomes from meningitis claims include brain injury and deafness, and outcomes from meningococcal septicaemia claims often involve amputations and other serious injury and death.

This virtual classroom seminar will cover the background to infection and sepsis with interactive case studies looking at practical issues that arise (e.g. how to save costs by instructing the right experts in the right order on difficult cases).

It will also consider relevant clinical standards and guidelines together with case law.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• Background to infection
• Background to sepsis, meningitis and meningococcal disease
• Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) and septic shock
• Standards of care in treating these conditions
• Potential areas for breach of duty
• Using the appropriate experts appropriately
• Caselaw, and lessons to learn from it
• Practical hints and tips

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.