Post-Surgical Infection: Court Finds No Proof Quick Disinfectant Soak Was Actual Cause

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

September 1999 

   Quick Summary: The nurse ignored the disinfectant manufacturer’s recommendation only soaking the instrument two, not ten minutes, but just two minutes would kill Staph aureus and the patient’s post-operative infection was Staph aureus.

   The expert witnesses all agreed Staph aureus would be killed by a two-minute soak in this disinfectant.

   Staph aureus is common in the air. It is a recognized risk of surgery.  COURT OF APPEAL OF LOUISIANA, 1999.

   The patient was a high school football player who needed arthroscopic repair of his damaged knee.

   Per usual practice, sterile 30o and 45o arthroscopy scopes were provided at the start of the procedure. During the procedure the orthopedic surgeon asked the nurse for a 70o scope. The nurse said it would take twenty minutes to soak one in disinfectant. The surgeon told the nurse to soak it for only ten minutes and he would use it.

   The patient returned two days later with an infection in the knee that was identified as Staphylococcus aureus. The patient sued the hospital. He claimed the hospital failed to take adequate preventive measures to avoid infection and failed to notify the patient of the risk of infection.

   The surgeon, nurse and hospital were not at fault, the jury ruled. The Court of Appeal of Louisiana agreed.

   The court said they were not automatically liable for malpractice just because the physician and nurse ignored the disinfectant manufacturer’s recommendation. The patient also had to prove cause and effect.

   The court heard testimony from all the expert witnesses that Staph aureus would be killed by a two-minute soak in the particular disinfectant they used. Staph is a common bacterium in the air and Staph infection is a recognized risk of any surgery. The court ruled the patient did not have solid proof the nurse soaking the instrument only ten minutes was what caused his infection. Griffin v. Hospital, 732 So. 2d 624 (La. App., 1999).