WALLINGFORD, CT — A Wallingford woman is suing Griffin Hospital in Derby on claims of medical malpractice in treating her sepsis case, which resulted in the amputation of all four of her limbs.
Carol Proto, who is being represented by Jeffrey Wisner and Kathleen Nastri of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday.
Proto was in good health when she entered Griffin Hospital in April 2021 for a "routine and elective diverticulitis surgery and expected to return home just two days later," according to a news release. However, after contracting sepsis, she left the hospital a full month later, "strapped to a stretcher, tethered to an oxygen tank, with black gangrene covering her feet and hands," the release states.
Proto was displaying signs of sepsis one day after her surgery, which the lawsuit claims should have been identified by hospital staff reviewing her vital signs and test results. Proto had low blood pressure, worsening confusion and kidney function that was at 50 percent of its pre-operative capacity, according to the suit.
The lawsuit claims the staff dismissed the symptoms of prolonged effects of anesthesia and failed to "follow international sepsis care guidelines and Griffin Hospital's own screening criteria." Proto was admitted to the ICU after experiencing sepsis for days.