The details of the settlement Lisa Speckman reached with LDS Hospital and her insurer, Intermountain Health Care Health Plans, are confidential.
She also sued the University of Utah, the taxpayer-supported institution that trained medical staff who treated her. Lawyers would not immediately provide the amount it paid to settle its part of the lawsuit, but The Salt Lake Tribune has requested that information under the state's Government Records Access and Management Act.
Speckman, 46, says she contracted a "flesh-eating disease" that led to the amputation of both her legs above the knees and her right arm above the elbow. In addition, her reproductive organs, gall bladder and much of her large intestine were removed.
In a lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court, Speckman claimed that negligence by Intermountain Health Care, which operates LDS Hospital, and its personnel caused the necrotizing fascitis that ravaged her body after the Feb. 25, 2005, birth of her daughter.
The hospital's medical staff ignored signs of an infection both before and after the baby was born and failed to perform needed diagnostic tests, the 2006 suit alleged.
The University of Utah was named as a defendant for placing medical residents and instructors at LDS Hospital for staffing and training. Claims against Intermountain alleged the private insurer failed to cover Speckman's medical expenses because she and her husband had hired lawyers to represent them in a malpractice claim.
At the time she gave birth, Speckman was a registered nurse employed at LDS Hospital.
The suit sought medical and other expenses, as well as unspecified punitive monetary damages. The cost of Speckman's care during her lifetime is estimated to exceed $15 million.
The settlement was reached in late September and Judge L.A. Dever dismissed the suit on Oct. 1.
