In April 2025, a Nassau County jury found in favor of my client on a claim of medical malpractice against an orthopedic group on Long Island and awarded him $1,000,000 for his past pain and suffering. My client underwent a shoulder cortisone injection for bursitis and within a few days developed chills, became septic, confused and was hospitalized with a deep Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection at the same site (acromiom) where the cortisone was deposited. He was hospitalized for 12 days and underwent 3 debridement and wash out procedures. The plaintiff was out of work for 5 months and ultimately recovered with massive scarring from the surgery and lost one-third range of motion in his shoulder.

Staph aureus is a common bacteria that resides on our skin and in our nose. We claimed the defendant orthopedic group (which routinely administered these cortisone injections), failed to follow standard nationwide safe injection practices and: allowed multiple punctures of multiple dose medication vials to supply more than one needle/syringe; permitted a 21 year old improperly trained/supervised technicians to prepare the needle and syringe and draw up lidocaine, marcaine and kenalog/cortisone from 3 separate vials.

The standard of care requires that aseptic technique and practices must be meticulous to reduce the risk of infection. Single dose vials should be used rather than multi dose vials to reduce the risk of contamination from the prior punctures of the multi dose vial with other needles. The rubber membrane on top of each vial must be properly swabbed with alcohol to avoid infection. The jury was instructed on the legal principles of Res Ipsa Loquitor which allows the jury to infer that the orthopedic group was negligent if they found: 1) that an infection at the injection site is the kind of event that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence; 2) that the MRSA infection was caused by something in the exclusive control of the orthopedic group; and, 3) that the plaintiff was not the sole cause of his MRSA infection. Rella v Orthopedics & Sports Associates of Long Island, Sup Ct, Nassau County, Index No. 611598/2019