MRSA Compensation Claims

The organism Staphylococcus aureus is found on many individuals skin and seems to cause no major problems.

However if it gets inside the body, for instance under the skin or into the lungs, it can cause important infections such as boils or pneumonia.  Individuals who carry this organism are usually totally healthy, have no problems whatever and are considered simply to be carriers of the organism.

MRSA or methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is used to describe those examples of the organism Staphylococcus aureus that are resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

Methicillin was an antibiotic used many years ago to treat patients with Staphylococcus aureus infections. It is now no longer used except as a means of identifying this particular type of antibiotic resistance.

MRSA organisms are often associated with patients in hospitals but can also be found on patients not in a hospital. Usually it is not necessary to do anything about MRSA organisms.
 
However if MRSA organisms are passed on to someone who is already ill, then a more serious infection may occur in that individual. When patients with MRSA are discovered in a hospital, the hospital will usually try to prevent it from passing around to other patients.

This is known as infection control.

Hospital-acquired infections

Some health care settings, especially hospitals, are more likely to harbour dangerous micro-organisms.

Patients are particularly vulnerable to infection because their immune systems tend to have been weakened by disease.  Worse still, the organisms that tend to survive in hospitals are those which
have developed resistance to antibiotics.

One example that's caused a lot of concern in recent years is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.

This type of bacteria is easily spread. Healthy people can live with it on their skin or in their noses without becoming ill. This is known as 'colonisation' or being a carrier.

Health care staff and visitors carry the bacteria around - 30 per cent of people are carriers of Staphylococcus aureus and in hospitals this is more likely to be the MRSA variety - and unwittingly spread MRSA to patients in whom it can cause potentially life-threatening wound infections.

Can I make a MRSA compensation claim?

If you or a loved one has been affected by an MRSA Infection you may be entitled to claim compensation.

These types of clinical negligence claims are complex and the more experienced your legal team the better your chances of success.  There are time limitations at present they stand at 3 years, however this may change.

To discover how to claim click here


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