A recent news story tells of a woman whose "minor gynecological procedure" was botched, resulting in her having both legs amputated. According to the link, her colon was perforated. This caused an infection, and she ultimately had gangrene spreading to her feet. Once gangrene sets in, the tissue is for all practical purposes dead. It is a medical emergency. All dead tissue must be removed in order to minimize the damage, and, unfortunately, this patient lost her legs below her knees.
It might seem odd that you could get an infection in a hospital. Generally speaking, hospitals will try to be as sterile as possible where patients will be exposed. However, by making efforts to sterilize the environment, it ensures that only the toughest bacteria can survive. Though a rare occurrence, being infected by these aggressive, antibiotic resistant bacteria is a very serious matter.
The more pressing question on your mind is probably, "Who's to blame?" The answer to that question will be determined in a court of law. Patient privacy prevents us from knowing the full details of how her infection progressed. Perhaps it was due to negligence on the part of the surgeon or hospital.
On the other hand, she might be one of the unlucky one-in-a-million medical catastrophes. While medical science has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years, we still don't know everything. There are no guaranteed successes in medicine. All surgeries carry the risk of infection. While the story above is an extreme case, patients need to realize that surgeries occasionally do not go as planned. Doctors, including podiatrists, make efforts to prevent these kinds of disasters, but the bottom line is that we are still searching for the fountain of youth. Until then, bad things will happen, and it might not be anyone's fault.
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