You knew something was wrong.
Maybe it started with a fever and chills you could not shake. Maybe your heart was racing. Maybe you felt confused, weak, or strangely out of it. You might have had a cough, a sore that would not heal, or burning when you went to the bathroom. Deep down, you knew this was not a normal sick day.
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Article written by Brendan Lupetin, Esq. Brendan is a managing partner in the law firm of Lupetin & Unatin, a medical malpractice law firm located in Pittsburgh and serving Western Pennsylvania.
Our practice is limited to high-value catastrophic cases because that is where we can do the most for our clients and for patient safety.
So you got help. You went to the ER, or to your doctor, or you were already in the hospital. You told them how bad you felt. And maybe they sent you home. Maybe they called it the flu, or stress, or just a bug going around. Maybe they ran a few tests and said you were fine.
But you were not fine. You got worse, fast. The next thing you knew, you or your loved one was fighting for your life. There were ICU machines, scary words from doctors, and a long road that is still not over. Now you are left with damage that may never fully heal. And you cannot stop wondering: why didn’t they catch this sooner?
That question matters. If your sepsis was caught late, the harm you suffered may have been preventable. This article explains the warning signs that sepsis was misdiagnosed. It explains the serious harm a delay can cause. And it explains what you can do next. If any of this sounds like your story, Lupetin & Unatin is here to help.
What Sepsis Is, in Plain Terms
Your body fights infections every day. Usually it wins. But sometimes the infection spreads. When that happens, your body can overreact. It starts to attack its own tissues and organs. That is sepsis. As the CDC explains, sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection, and it is a life-threatening medical emergency.
If it is not treated quickly, sepsis can turn into septic shock. Your blood pressure drops. Your organs start to fail. This is a true emergency. Every hour matters. Studies show that the risk of death rises with each hour that treatment is delayed.
The good news is that sepsis is treatable. Doctors use blood tests, fluids, and antibiotics. The key word is early. When the diagnosis comes too late, the treatment cannot do its job.
Why Sepsis Gets Missed
Sepsis is sometimes called a silent killer. That is partly because its early signs look like other things. A fever feels like the flu. A fast heartbeat feels like stress. Confusion gets blamed on age or tiredness. The Sepsis Alliance reports that sepsis affects more than 1.7 million people in the United States each year, and it remains a leading cause of death in hospitals.
But doctors and nurses are trained to look for sepsis. Hospitals have warning systems built to catch it. In fact, hospitals that receive Medicare are required to follow a strict sepsis treatment protocol on a tight clock. You can read more about how these failures happen on our sepsis misdiagnosis page. When the signs are there and no one acts, that is not bad luck. That may be a failure to meet the standard of care.
Here are the common reasons sepsis gets missed:
- The patient was sent home from the ER too soon.
- Lab results showed infection but no one followed up.
- Vital signs were abnormal but nobody connected the dots.
- The patient complained of clear symptoms that were brushed off.
- A known infection was not treated aggressively enough.
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Signs Your Sepsis May Have Been Misdiagnosed
Below are the red flags. If you recognize several of these, it may be worth a closer look at your care.
You Had an Infection That Was Ignored or Undertreated
Many sepsis cases start with a known infection. It could be a urinary tract infection. It could be pneumonia. It could be an infected wound or a surgical site. If you told your doctor about an infection and they did little about it, that is a warning sign. Infections that are watched and treated do not usually turn into sepsis.
Your Vital Signs Were Abnormal but No One Acted
Hospitals track your temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. These numbers tell a story. A high heart rate, a fast breathing rate, and a fever together can signal sepsis. The CDC lists the key signs and symptoms, including high heart rate, fever or shivering, confusion, shortness of breath, and extreme pain. If your chart showed these numbers and no one ordered more tests, that is a red flag.
You Were Sent Home and Got Much Worse
This one is common. You go to the ER feeling sick. They tell you it is a virus. They send you home. A day or two later you are far worse, maybe back in the hospital fighting for your life. A proper sepsis workup might have caught the problem the first time.
Your Symptoms Were Blamed on Something Minor
Sepsis symptoms get explained away all the time. Confusion gets called stress. Low blood pressure gets called dehydration. Shaking chills get called anxiety. If your real warning signs were waved off, the diagnosis may have been missed.
There Was a Long Delay Before Antibiotics
In sepsis, antibiotics should start fast, often within the first hour. If you waited many hours in the ER before anyone gave you antibiotics, that delay can cause real harm. Every hour counts, and you can learn more about why on our delayed diagnosis of sepsis page. Ask yourself how long you waited. The answer can matter a great deal.
Lab Results Pointed to Sepsis but Were Not Followed Up
Blood tests can show signs of a serious infection. A high white blood cell count is one example. Lactate levels are another. These results are supposed to trigger action. If the labs were abnormal and nothing changed in your care, that gap could be negligence.
You Suffered Lasting Harm
Sometimes the clearest sign that something went wrong is the outcome itself. Healthy people who get timely care usually do not end up badly injured. When sepsis is caught late, the damage can be severe and permanent. The next section covers the serious harm a delay can cause.
The Serious Harm a Sepsis Delay Can Cause
When sepsis is not treated fast, it starves your organs and tissues of blood and oxygen. The longer the delay, the more harm it does. Here are the serious injuries and outcomes a missed or delayed sepsis diagnosis can cause.
Amputation of fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, or legs. Septic shock cuts blood flow to the body’s far edges. Tissue dies. Doctors call this gangrene. To save your life, they may have to remove fingers, toes, or whole limbs. Many sepsis survivors live with one or more amputations.
Kidney failure. The kidneys are very sensitive to low blood flow. Sepsis can shut them down. Some people recover. Others need dialysis for the rest of their lives. Some need a kidney transplant.
Lung damage and breathing failure. Sepsis can flood the lungs and cause a condition called ARDS. You may need a ventilator to breathe. Some survivors are left with lasting lung damage and shortness of breath.
Heart damage. Sepsis strains the heart. It can weaken the heart muscle and cause lasting heart problems. In severe cases it leads to heart failure.
Liver failure. The liver can shut down during sepsis. This causes jaundice, bleeding problems, and a buildup of toxins in the body.
Brain injury and lasting confusion. Low blood flow and high fever can hurt the brain. Survivors often deal with memory loss, trouble focusing, and confusion that does not fully go away. Doctors sometimes call this sepsis-related brain dysfunction.
Stroke. Sepsis raises the risk of blood clots. A clot in the brain can cause a stroke, which can lead to paralysis, speech loss, and lasting disability.
Nerve and muscle damage. Long ICU stays and sepsis itself can cause severe weakness. Some survivors cannot walk without help. Some have lasting nerve pain or numbness.
Tissue death and deep wounds. Beyond the limbs, sepsis can kill skin and soft tissue across the body. This can require surgery, skin grafts, and long wound care.
PTSD, anxiety, and depression. The trauma of sepsis does not end when you leave the hospital. Many survivors struggle with nightmares, fear, anxiety, and depression for years.
Long-term disability. Add it all up, and many sepsis survivors cannot return to work or live the life they had before. This is sometimes called post-sepsis syndrome. It can include chronic pain, exhaustion, and repeated infections.
Death. Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals. When it is caught late, it can kill. If you lost a husband, wife, parent, or child to sepsis, and the warning signs were missed, you may have a wrongful death claim. No one can undo that loss. But you can seek answers and hold the responsible parties accountable.
Many of these outcomes share one thing in common. They often trace back to time that was lost. Time that doctors had to act, and did not use.
When a Missed Diagnosis Becomes Malpractice
Not every bad outcome is malpractice. Doctors do not have to be perfect. But they do have to meet a basic standard. That standard is the level of care a careful doctor would have given in the same situation.
To have a malpractice case, a few things usually need to be true. First, there was a doctor-patient relationship. Second, the care fell below the accepted standard. Third, that failure caused real harm. Fourth, the harm led to losses, such as medical bills, lost income, or pain and suffering.
Sepsis cases often fit this pattern. The signs were there. The standard care was clear. The delay caused the harm. Proving it takes work, records, and the right medical experts. That is where Lupetin & Unatin comes in.
What You Should Do Now
If you think your sepsis was misdiagnosed, take these steps.
Get your medical records. You have a right to them. They hold the timeline of what happened and when.
Write down what you remember. Note when you first felt sick. Note what you told the doctors. Note how long you waited for care. Memory fades, so do this soon.
Do not wait too long to ask questions. Every state has a deadline for filing a malpractice claim. In Pennsylvania, that deadline is usually two years. There are some exceptions, but the clock can run out fast. Acting early protects your rights.
Talk to a lawyer who knows these cases. Sepsis claims are complex. They need medical experts and a deep understanding of hospital care. A general lawyer may not be the right fit. A firm focused on medical malpractice will know what to look for.
How Lupetin & Unatin Can Help
We are Lupetin & Unatin. We are a Pittsburgh medical malpractice firm. We focus on serious injury and death from medical errors. Sepsis cases are part of our work. We know how these injuries happen. We know how hospitals defend them. And we know how to hold them accountable.
We have personally handled delayed sepsis cases. We have represented people who lost limbs to amputation because the infection was caught too late. We have stood up for families whose loved one suffered brain injury. And we have helped families who lost someone they loved to sepsis that should have been treated in time. We have seen how a few lost hours can change a life forever.
We take a small number of cases so we can give each one real attention. We work on contingency. That means you pay nothing up front. You pay nothing unless we win. There is no risk in finding out if you have a case.
You deserve answers. You deserve to know if your suffering could have been prevented. A short conversation can tell you a lot.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may not know for sure on your own. That is normal. The answer is usually in the medical records. We look at your vital signs, your lab results, and the timeline of your care. We check how long it took to start antibiotics. We see whether the warning signs were there and whether anyone acted on them. A careful review tells us if the care fell below the standard. That review costs you nothing.
In most cases, the deadline in Pennsylvania is two years from the date of the harm. Some exceptions can change that deadline. For example, the clock may start later if you did not know, and could not have known, that a mistake caused your injury. These rules are tricky. The safest move is to call us soon so we can protect your rights before time runs out.
Nothing up front. We work on contingency. That means we only get paid if we win money for you. There is no fee to talk with us and no fee to review your case. If we take your case and do not win, you owe us no attorney fee. This lets you seek justice without financial risk.
Reach Out Today
If any part of this article sounds like your story, please contact Lupetin & Unatin. Tell us what happened. We will listen. We will review your records. We will tell you honestly whether we think there is a case.
Sepsis can change a life in a matter of hours. A missed diagnosis can change it forever. If a hospital or doctor failed you, you have the right to seek justice. Let us help you find out what really happened.
Call Lupetin & Unatin today for a free, no-pressure review of your case.