When an IV Goes Wrong: Understanding Your Legal Options After Infiltration Injuries

Getting an IV is supposed to be routine.

You go to the hospital. They stick a line in you. A nurse hooks you up and medicine or fluids drip into your vein. Easy-peasy. Except sometimes that line moves around, becomes dislodged or inserted improperly. When that occurs, the fluid seeps into the tissue surrounding the vein instead of into your circulatory system.

This is called IV infiltration, and it can cause some serious problems.

For most cases it results in swelling and some pain. However in severest of cases it can cause nerve damage, tissue death and permanent injury. And here is the thing most people don’t know…many of these injuries were preventable.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. What Is IV Infiltration?
2. How Infiltration Causes Nerve Damage
3. When It Becomes Medical Malpractice
4. What Your Legal Options Look Like

What Is IV Infiltration?

IV infiltration is when fluid from an IV leaks out of the vein and into tissue.

Closely related to infiltration is extravasation. The difference is that infiltration is the leakage of an innocuous fluid, such as saline. Extravasation is when the medication leaking into the tissue is harmful/cytotoxic to the tissue. Both are undesirable, however extravasation has the potential to cause the most damage.

It usually happens for a few common reasons:

• Improper insertion: The needle wasn’t placed correctly in the vein.
• Unsecured IV lines: The line moved or slipped out of place.

Failure to monitor:   Failed to adequately monitor IV site for early detection of issue.

Ok now for the alarming news. These injuries occur far more frequently than hospitals are reporting. Studies have shown as high as 16% and greater incidence of infiltration and reporting is frequently incomplete. Many go unreported completely.

That means a lot of patients are getting hurt without anyone tracking it.

How Infiltration Causes Nerve Damage

Not all infiltration is harmful. However, if left untreated, it can quickly escalate.

Fluid accumulating in tissue causes pressure. That pressure compresses the surrounding nerves. If the leaking fluid is an irritating drug, it can also burn and damage nerve tissue. Either scenario leads to…

Nerve damage.

And nerve damage is no small thing. It can leave you with:

• Ongoing numbness or tingling
• Chronic pain that doesn’t go away
• Loss of function in your hand, arm, or leg
• Permanent disability

Proximity of injury is another factor. Infiltration near your wrist or hand can damage nerves you rely on to grasp things, type, and write. If you’re a career reliant on using your hands, that can be devastating. Careers have ended over less.

Timing is important because if the nurse notices the infiltration right away and removes the IV, there will be minimal damage. However, if hours pass and the nurse ignores the warning signs, continued pressure will continue to be placed on the nerve, causing more damage. This is why hospitals have policies mandating nurses to frequently assess IV sites.

When those checks don’t happen, patients pay the price.

When It Becomes Medical Malpractice

Let’s clear something up. Not every case of IV infiltration is malpractice.

Occasionally infiltration occurs simply because it can. It’s a complication of IV therapy and there’s nothing even the most cautious nurse can do to prevent it from happening every once in a blue moon. Medicine is like that sometimes. Other times it occurs due to NEGLIGENCE.

So how do you tell the difference?

Did they meet the “standard of care”? That just means: would another nurse have done things differently under those same circumstances? If so, you might have a case for malpractice. If someone was injured due to negligence that could have been avoided, and you can prove it, then the law will intervene and that’s when it makes sense to hire a IV infiltration lawyer who will fight for you.

Infiltration often crosses into malpractice when:

• An untrained staff member placed the IV badly
• Staff failed to monitor a high-risk patient properly
• Warning signs were ignored until the damage was done

Financial costs are very real as well. IV injuries cause a silent epidemic costing hospital systems millions. Many hospitals have accrued millions in claims and legal fees over the years. Legal expenses and costly claims are just how large of a problem IV injuries truly are.

What Your Legal Options Look Like

If you have suffered injury from IV infiltration you may be asking yourself what can be done about it.

The good news is you have choices. You may be able to make a medical malpractice claim against your healthcare provider if their negligence led to your injury. You could seek compensation for nerve damage.

To win a claim like this, you generally need to prove four things:

Your caregiver had a duty to provide you with the care you should receive (this will usually go without saying if your IV was placed by a hospital).

1. Breach: They failed to meet the standard of care.
2. Causation: That failure caused your injury.
3. Damages: You suffered real harm as a result.

Now we come to what nerve damage compensation can pay for. The obvious one is medical expenses but a comprehensive claim can include:

• Medical costs — past and future, including surgeries and rehab.
• Lost income — both wages you missed and reduced earning capacity going forward.
• Pain and suffering — the physical pain and emotional toll you’ve dealt with.

Pay attention to that last one.  The “non-monetary” matters significantly.  Often it is the bulk of a settlement.

One last thing you should NEVER miss… time is running out. Every state has a deadline for filing known as a statute of limitations. If you miss that deadline, you lose your right to file, even if you have the best case ever. That is why it is critical to act fast.

Wrapping Things Up

IV infiltration may seem insignificant, but it can haunt you forever.

Truth is many of these injuries were preventable. When medical staff hurries, skip their rounds, or disregard warning signs patients suffer permanent nerve damage from something that was supposed to be preventative.

Here’s the quick recap:

• IV infiltration happens when fluid leaks into your tissue
• Untreated infiltration can cause serious nerve damage
• Not every case is malpractice, but many are
• You may be owed nerve damage compensation for your injury
• Deadlines apply, so don’t wait around

Don’t sit idly by if you or a loved one has been injured by a botched IV. You have rights under the law to seek justice from negligent providers.