As told by his wife, Sandra.

On August 14, 2015 my husband Robert was given Rocephin and Clindamycin intravenously because of a suspected elbow joint infection while in the emergency room of a hospital in Naples, Florida. The emergency room doctor did not try to aspirate any fluid from his elbow to see if he actually had an infection, or if it was just a flare up of gout. He had a history of gout.

On August 29, 2015 he died in the ICU after having his whole colon removed. He had Clostridium difficile colitis with toxic megacolon. The IV antibiotics wiped out all the good bacteria in his colon, and the bad bacteria took over. He was only 73, had no history of colitis, and had not taken any other antibiotics or been admitted to a hospital in the seventeen years we have lived in Florida.

I filed a grievance regarding the care my husband received in the emergency department, but the hospital determined the emergency department providers used appropriate judgment in treating my husband.

I’m a retired Registered Nurse. After talking with other health care providers and patients, it seems the standard care plan is to often give patients antibiotics whether they actually need them or not.

I spoke with the infectious disease doctor after my husband’s surgery, and he told me it was from the IV antibiotics. He told me C. diff was much more toxic than what I saw as a home care nurse in the 1990s. No information was given to me in the emergency department regarding C. diff on my husbands first visit on August 14th.