pain

Maryland Woman Sues Hospital Over Amputated Limbs

A Baltimore woman is suing the Johns Hopkins Health System, saying her arms and legs were amputated after doctors failed to diagnose an infection in her uterus.

Joyce Ferguson, 59, filed the lawsuit last week in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that Ferguson went to the emergency room at Howard County General Hospital three times with severe pelvic pain.

During her third visit in March 2012, Ferguson was about to be discharged when she was found lying on a stretcher, incoherent and cold to the touch, according to the lawsuit. Doctors then found infected uterine tissue, the lawsuit said.

Ferguson said she recovered from sepsis and organ failure, but a lack of blood flow caused gangrene to her extremities. Her legs were amputated above the knee and her arms below the elbow.

"In our view, this case is an example of a tragedy - with a capital T - that was entirely avoidable,'' Howard Janet, one of Ferguson's attorneys, told The Daily Record.

Howard County General Hospital is part of the Johns Hopkins Health System. Johns Hopkins declined to comment.

Ferguson claims that doctors at Howard County General failed to order a complete pelvic examination or explain ``the abnormal finding of a large fluid collection observed in ultrasounds performed at the hospital and by Ferguson's private gynecologist, among other allegations.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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