Problems with ostomy placement

I am very sorry if this is the wrong place for my question, but I am at a loss as to where I might go for advice,  In early January 2012 my sister was rushed to a community hospital for a bowel perforation and burst appendix - obviously sepsis ensued.  She recovered from the sepsis but the wound is not healing well.  It seems the stoma (ileostomy) is way too close to the incisional wound and fistulas have opened up between the two causing obvious problems.  She has moved to a much better world-renowned clinic.  The plan now is to keep things as clean as possible and buy time in order to perform new surgery and move the stoma further away from the wound.  The new hospital has said that their SOP is to have a stoma nurse map out an appropriate place for the stoma placement - usually a fair distance from the incision.  It does not appear the original hospital did this.

Some circumstances that might have bearing:
1) The original surgery was emergency surgery and perhaps time wasn't available for careful mapping.
2) My sister is morbidly obese - which might have its own implications in this matter
3) The stoma has "retracted" - not unusual, but certainly adding to the complications

My basic question is this:  was the original surgeon negligent in the design of the stoma placement?  I.e. is it worth it to consider a malpractice suit?

I tend to shy away from being litigious - but being my sister's financial and healthcare POA, I need to consider everything.

If this forum is not an appropriate place to ask this - can somebody point me in a good direction?

TIA!!!