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Bacterial Meningitis

Posted by: Tom Warner
March 04, 2009
Topic: Medical Malpractice

Three people have died in the Wichita area since January from bacterial meningitis. Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the fluid around one's brain and spinal card. It is fatal if not treated. The classic signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis are flu symptoms including fever, headache, sensitivity to light and stiff neck. The stiff neck symptom is what differentiates this conditon from the flu. Bacterial meningitis is treatable with antibiotics. Doctors and other health care providers need to have a high index of suspicion in order to diagnose this illness. Anyone with flu like symptoms accompanied by a stiff neck needs to seek immediate help in an emergency room and insist that the doctor put bacterial meningitis on the differential diagnosis and treat it until and unless it is ruled out. When health care providers fail to consider bacterial meningitis and treat it when presented with a patient with the above mentioned symptoms, it is routinely fatal. In this instance, the health care provider may have committed medical malpractice for failing to diagnose and treat this condition.