It is not uncommon for a patient who undergoes surgery or any invasive procedure to develop an infection. Although operating rooms are meant to provide a sterile field for a surgery, there are many ways in which a bacterial organism can invade the body through an opening.
A staph infection (staphylococcus aureus) is the most common, because this organism is present on everyone’s skin and no surgery prepping can completely eliminate it. In general, a staph infection that develops immediately after a surgery is not sufficient evidence of negligence on the part of the OR personnel or the hospital. Unless a specific negligent act or failure can be identified as the source of the infection, it is rare that a medical malpractice action is viable. This is also true for a MRSA infection, which can be much more serious and usually occurs in a hospital and not in the community.
In some cases, there may be several patients who suffer a similar infection during the same time period in the same OR, and this could indicate some breakdown in sterile procedures on the part of the hospital. Most often, however, the patient who develops an infection won’t know of other patients who had a similar infection. If that knowledge does exist, an investigation may find that there were problems with sterile procedures in that particular OR, or problems with the ventilation system.
A strep infection (group A streptococcal) may be different, since that organism usually comes from an infected person in the OR. If a patient develops a strep infection that appears to come from the OR, hospitals will usually investigate to determine if a carrier of that organism was present in the OR. Sometimes there will be a cluster of such infections and they can be traced to a surgeon or nurse who has the organism in his/her nasal cavity.
Fungal infections can also be different, because they are relatively rare (and can be quite serious because they are typically more difficult to treat). If it appears that an unusual fungal organism invaded an operative incision, it may come from the uncovered shoes of OR personnel who tracked in dirt with that particular fungus, or a faulty ventilation system that may be drawing in dust from, for example, a construction site at the hospital.
Most operative and post-operative infection cases are based not on the fact an infection occurred, but rather on a delay in diagnosing and treating the infection. A patient may call the surgeon to complain about a surgery site that is painful, swollen, or red, all of which are potential signs of an infection. If the doctor fails to see the patient promptly, or antibiotics are not prescribed, the infection may spread and cause a surgery to fail or result in other serious medical problems.
