Jury Awards $25.3 Million to Woman Who Had All Four Limbs Amputated

A Milwaukee woman was awarded a $25.3 million jury verdict in a failure to diagnose medical malpractice case. The woman lost her limbs due to septic shock. The septic shock resulted from her doctors’ failure to recognize and treat Strep A infection-the kind that leads to strep throat. According to the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, “Ascaris Mayo, a 53-year-old mother of four, had her limbs amputated in 2011 after a Strep A infection — the kind that causes strep throat — went undetected, ultimately leading to septic shock. Damage caused by the infection led to the amputations. . . After spending about nine hours at the hospital in March 2011 for treatment of severe abdominal pain, a rapid heartbeat and a fever, Mayo was discharged about midnight and told to contact her gynecologist in the morning for fibroid issues. Later that day, she collapsed at home, and she was treated for septic shock. The infection was quickly halted, but the damage to her vascular system cost her all four limbs.”