Pretzel & Stouffer Attorneys Obtain Victory for Resident Physician in MSRA Case

Brian Henry and Sommer Luzynczyk obtained a jury verdict in favor of a resident physician and an intern who allegedly failed to timely diagnose and treat a necrotizing MRSA skin infection in a nine day old neonate.

The plaintiff argued that the defendants failed to appreciate that area of discoloration and redness on the infant. Plaintiff contended that the defendants should have suspected a MRSA necrotizing skin infection and started the infant on Vancomycin six hours earlier. The plaintiff contended that the defendants’ negligence resulted in the infant requiring skin grafts, extensive permanent scarring, subsequent surgery to revise the skin grafts and the development of a partial growth plate arrest of the distal tibia necessitating surgery for the growth plate arrest.

Brian and Sommer successfully argued that 1) there was no progression of the rash in the ER until the morning after the child was admitted to the hospital and it was promptly recognized and treated at that time and 2) even if Vancomycin had been given earlier, the patient still would have required all of the treatment and surgeries he received and would have sustained the same scarring