A RN injected medicine – a hypertonic saline solution - into the leg of a 40-year-old hair stylist to shrink malformed blood vessels. During subsequent follow-ups with the physician, the condition of the patient’s leg continued to worsen. The physician noted that the patient had not been following the post-treatment care prescribed and documented by the RN - which included avoiding standing for long periods of time and wearing compression stockings - or additional education he provided about applying antibiotic ointment and frequently changing the wound dressings.
Instead of resting her leg, the hair stylist continued to work long hours on her feet and skip
parts of the recommended care plan. Eventually, she left the RN and physician but then sued them 6 months later, claiming she had been injected with a medicine that was too highly concentrated and corrosive, damaging her vein, grossly disfiguring her leg, and causing leg pain that now prevented her from working.