HUS Coma

Pritzker Olsen law firm has represented children who developed HUS with an E. coli infection. Our HUS (hemolytic uremic syndrome) cases have involved children who were sickened after eating contaminated food and after visiting a petting zoo. We represent children and their families in E. coli HUS cases nationwide.

To contact our lawyers about HUS and a coma, seizures, stroke, kidney failure, pancreatitis and other HUS complications, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free), email Attorney Fred Pritzker or submit our online form for a free consultation.

HUS Coma and the Glasgow Coma Scale

Children who are infected with E. coli O157:H7 and then develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) often experience problems with their central nervous systems (CNS). Varying degrees of unresponsiveness, from being a little disoriented to coma, are possible. At any point on the scale, children with HUS and CNS involvement are seriously ill. If the parents permit, our lawyers visit our young clients in the hospital, and feel this helps in our representation of these severely sick children. Contact Attorney Fred Pritzker for more information about our hospital calls.

The Glasgow Coma Scale has three categories, eye-opening response, verbal response and motor response. The total Glasgow Coma Scale score is the sum of the scores in the three categories. The total Glasgow Coma Scale score range is 3-15—the higher the score, the less responsive the patient. A patient with a score of 3-8 is generally considered to be in a coma.

Glasgow Coma Scale for HUS victims over five years of age:

Eye Opening Response	Spontaneous--open with blinking at baseline	4 points
	Opens to verbal command, speech, or shout	3 points
	Opens to pain, not applied to face	2 points
	None	1 point
Verbal Response	Oriented	5 points
	Confused conversation, but able to answer questions	4 points
	Inappropriate responses, words discernible	3 points
	Incomprehensible speech	2 points
	None	1 point
Motor Response	Obeys commands for movement	6 points
	Purposeful movement to painful stimulus	5 points
	Withdraws from pain	4 points
	Abnormal (spastic) flexion, decorticate posture	3 points
	Extensor (rigid) response, decerebrate posture	2 points
	None	1 point

Because children under five, the most common victims of E. coli HUS, are not able to give verbal responses similar to an older child or adult, the verbal response category is a bit different for young children.

Glasgow Coma Scale verbal response category for children under age five:


SCORE	2 to 5 YRS	0 TO 23 Mos.
5	Appropriate words or phrases	Smiles or coos appropriately
4	Inappropriate words	Cries and consolable
3	Persistent cries and/or screams	Persistent inappropriate crying &/or screaming
2	Grunts	Grunts or is agitated or restless
1	No response	No response

Free Consultation with Lawyer

If your child has HUS, you and your child have legal rights, including the right to seek compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of quality of life from anyone who was responsible for the E. coli O157:H7 infection that caused the HUS.

If you would like to interview one of our attorneys before hiring our law firm, one of our E. coli lawyers will fly to meet with you.

To contact an E. coli lawyer for a free consultation, call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the online consultation form.

Resources: 1. David G. Nathan and F. A. Oski, Hematology of infancy and childhood, W.B. Saunders Co, Philadelphia (1993).
2. Hemolytic uremic syndrome and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York (1992).
3. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/glasgow.htm.

Keywords: HUS coma, CNS damage, medically-induced HUS coma, child with HUS in a coma, wrongful death, E. coli O157:H7, hemolytic anemia, HUS and TTP, attorney, lawyer, lawsuit.

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