Maggot infestation due to incorrect care?

A senior woman suffered a maggot infestation due to wrong care measures?

After the wound of a 73-year-old woman was infected with maggots, the public prosecutor investigates Dortmund on suspicion of assault against the care of the senior home Sophia am Lüttke wood. The daughter had filed a complaint.

The Comunita Senior Citizen Sophia am Lüttke Holz in Bergkamen was considered to be above average and so in the summer of the year N. Rudnik had handed over her mother to the orderlies with a good feeling. The 73-year-old had in addition to diabetes, heart problems and various other conditions as well as open wounds on the leg, which had to be continuously supplied. In conversation with the newspaper „Westfälischer Anzeiger“ N. Rudnik reports that her mother's condition deteriorated acutely after about two weeks in the nursing home and that she was referred to the St. Christopher Hospital in Werne. There was a huge maggot infestation of the open wounds was detected by the medical staff, said Rudnik. After four days at St. Christopher's Hospital, her mother has a high fever and has died of heart failure.

After the daughter learned about the maggots in the wound, she filed a complaint against the Comunita Retirement Home. However, Rudnik is not only concerned with the maggots in the wounds, but also with the question of whether maladies in nursing could have led to her mother's death. The public prosecutor's office in Dortmund has commenced the investigation on suspicion of assault, prosecutor Dr. However, Ina Holznagel also emphasized that this was not about the death of the 73-year-olds, who obviously had occurred as a result of the previous illness. „Of course, it is still not okay at all, if wounds were not properly supplied there“, said the prosecutor. The public prosecutor's office currently has legal experts examining it, „how long an ulcer has not been cared for until maggots develop in it“, explained wood nail. The public prosecutor in Dortmund does not expect a result until about two months. N. Rudnik also tries to obtain compensation for the pain and the reimbursement of burial costs in a civil case.

Bernhard Rössler, spokesman for the senior citizen Sophia explained that his house itself has great interest in clarifying the circumstances and in the context of their own investigations, an employee has already admitted in writing a mistake in the dressing change. This was subsequently dismissed. In addition, every resident at residency will be provided with a resident documentation containing all the medical reports of doctors and hospitals from the time they moved into the senior citizen home and their own examination results. These documents have been made available to the prosecutor, Rössler stressed. Also the seniors house was examined after the indictment of the medical service of the health insurance companies and evaluated with the grade 1,3, what „well above the national average of 2.4“ Liege explained Bernhard Rössler.

The Nursing Director of the St. Christopher Hospital, Ludger Risse, told the newspaper „Westfälischer Anzeiger“, that „Maggots in a wound (...) are not generally an indication of a care failure“ have to be. According to him, it happens relatively quickly that, for example, during the morning bandage change a fly unnoticed drops an egg in the wound, from which may have developed until the evening or next morning already first maggots. Cracks emphasized that while it is unappetizing, but not threatening to health, when maggots settle in the wound. At the same time, the expert also referred to madness therapies - in which, however, sterile maggots would be used. „The maggots eat the dead tissue“, which may be useful if it would be difficult to remove surgically, said the expert. (fp, 16.10.2010)

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Picture credits: Rike