“I Went in for One Thing and Came Out With an Infection”: Hospital-Acquired Infections

Surgical and hospital care guides · 14 min read · Published 10 November 2026 · Reviewed 10 November 2026 · Next review May 2027

By Dr Rosemary Listing, PhD (Law) · Medical negligence lawyer since 2014 · Of Counsel, Peter Evans & Associates

If you or someone you love picked up an infection in hospital and became seriously unwell, I want you to know that your questions are reasonable. You went into hospital to get better. Wanting to know how an infection happened, and whether it was noticed in time, is not ungrateful.

This guide covers the national infection standard, common hospital infections, warning signs, sepsis, what your records should show, and how the law looks at it.

Start with your question

• What should hospitals do to prevent infection?
• What kinds of infections happen in hospital?
• What are the early signs of infection?
• What are the signs of sepsis?
• Are hospital infections preventable?
• What will my records show?
• Can I claim for a hospital-acquired infection?

The national standard

All Australian hospitals are accredited against the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, including the Preventing and Controlling Infections Standard. NSW’s Clinical Excellence Commission explains that it requires hand hygiene in line with the National Hand Hygiene Initiative, aseptic technique for relevant procedures with staff competence monitored, surveillance of infections, and assessment of each patient’s infection risk on admission and during care. Patients and families should be given information about infection risks and precautions.¹

Common hospital infections

• Surgical wound infections, from superficial redness to deep infections around implants.
• Bloodstream infections from drips (cannulas) and central lines, often golden staph.
• Urinary infections from catheters.
• Pneumonia, especially after surgery or on a ventilator.
• Resistant organisms, such as MRSA, and gut infections such as C. difficile.

Early signs

Early signs include fever, a red, swollen or painful drip site, a wound that becomes red, hot, swollen or starts leaking, new confusion in an older person, and feeling generally unwell. Our guide to ongoing pain after abdominal surgery covers deep infections after operations.

Things you can ask

• Has everyone cleaned their hands before touching me?
• How long has this drip been in, and does it still need to be?
• Does this catheter still need to be in?
• Could this fever be an infection, and will blood cultures be taken?
• Could this be sepsis?

Sepsis

Sepsis happens when the body’s response to an infection starts damaging its own organs. Warning signs include fever or very low temperature, shivering, fast breathing, a racing heart, confusion, low blood pressure and very little urine. Sepsis needs urgent antibiotics and treatment. Our guide to sepsis and amputation explains how serious it can become.

Expected, worth a review, or emergency

Are infections preventable?

Some infections happen despite good care, especially in very unwell people or after major surgery. Others are linked to lapses, such as drips left in too long, poor hand hygiene, or breaks in sterile technique. Even where an infection couldn’t have been prevented, a delay in recognising and treating it can turn a manageable problem into a serious one.

Your records

Ask for the observation charts (temperature, pulse, blood pressure), drip and line charts, nursing notes, blood culture results and antibiotic chart. They usually show when signs first appeared and when treatment started. Our guide to getting your medical records explains how. If something went wrong and nobody explained it, see our guide to open disclosure.

What to look for in the records

Your records are often where the story becomes clear. You have a right to access your own health information. In NSW the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 covers both public and private providers, and the Information and Privacy Commission explains how to ask.² Our step-by-step guide to getting your medical records in Australia walks you through it.

How the law looks at it

A hospital-acquired infection is not automatically negligence. Some infections happen despite good care. The legal questions are whether infection prevention standards were followed, and whether the infection was recognised and treated promptly once signs appeared.

A claim usually turns on three questions: whether the care fell below what peers would widely accept as competent practice (section 5O of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW))³, whether that shortfall probably caused harm you wouldn't otherwise have had (Tabet v Gett)⁴, and, where it matters, whether you were told the material risks first (Rogers v Whitaker)⁵⁶. Our guide to how a medical negligence claim works explains each one in plain terms.

In an infection case, the questions might be: were hand hygiene and aseptic technique followed? Were drips and catheters checked, and removed when no longer needed or when signs of infection appeared? Was a fever or wound change escalated? Were blood cultures taken and antibiotics started promptly? Were sepsis warning signs recognised?

In plain terms, the question is whether following the standards, or recognising the infection sooner, would probably have avoided or reduced the harm.

For surgery or procedures, that would usually include the risk of infection, particularly where implants are involved.

Who can claim, and when

The person harmed can claim. If they have died, their family may have a claim. In NSW, time usually runs from when you knew, or ought to have known, enough to claim, not from the treatment itself, and courts can sometimes extend it, so an old injury may still count. See time limits in NSW or other states, and ask early.

More: complaint or claim? · how a claim is paid for · what a claim can cover

In my practice

In hospital infection files, the cannula chart and the observation chart are often the most important documents. A drip left in for days with a note saying “red, for review”, or a temperature trending up across a night shift with no call to a doctor, can be the turning point. Families often noticed the problem first. Reading those charts frequently shows they were right.

Both things can be true

The hospital may have saved your life once the infection was recognised, and still have missed the early signs. You can be grateful for the intensive care and still want to know about the hours before it.

The bigger picture

Hospitals report infection surveillance data as part of the national standards.¹ Complaints about care in NSW can go to the Health Care Complaints Commission.⁷ Our surgical errors and hospital negligence page brings together related guides, including infection after breast augmentation.

Support

You don't have to work through this alone. These services can help:

• Lifeline, 24-hour crisis support: 13 11 14 (listed on healthdirect's helplines page)⁸
• Beyond Blue, anxiety and depression support: 1300 22 4636
• Medicare Mental Health, help finding mental health support: 1800 595 212
• healthdirect, 24-hour nurse advice: 1800 022 222
• Health Care Complaints Commission (NSW): 1800 043 159

A daughter who mentioned the red drip site now holds the chart that shows she was right. You deserve that clarity too.

With care,
Rosemary

Frequently asked questions