19 replies to this topic

[Gem]

Has anyone brought suit against a surgeon or hospital coming out of an AAA repair surgery as a paraplegic? What was the result in the case ?

[twentieth]

http://www.livestron...neurysm-repair/

[Gem]

Sorry, I'm just missing your point. What does an article on "complications of AAA repair" have to do with the question that I asked ? I started living the complications when I woke up after surgery and was told I'm probably never going to walk again ! They were a little late in pointing out the copmplications.

[retired]

Gem, on 07 June 2011 - 01:16 AM, said:

Has anyone brought suit against a surgeon or hospital coming out of an AAA repair surgery as a paraplegic? What was the result in the case ?

My husband had the aaa repair 3.5 years ago and had the same result. We never felt that the dr. was negligent. Of course, if you do, you might have a case. Just curious, was the surgery in Norfolk, Va.?

[Tinbasher]

SCI is a well known complication of AAA surgery, there are a few folks on here I think and there were two guys in rehab with me.

I guess you might have some reason to sue if the probablilty was not explained to you but given the alternative to surgery is possibly death I am not sure how a court would deal with it.



Tin

Gem, on 07 June 2011 - 01:16 AM, said:

Has anyone brought suit against a surgeon or hospital coming out of an AAA repair surgery as a paraplegic? What was the result in the case ?

[Gem]

The surgery was not performed in Virginia. The possibility of paralysis was never mentioned prior to the surgery. It was an emergency surgery,however. All your input is appreciated

[Gem]

Usually, it is pretty straightforward that a surgery is not supposed to result in you becoming paralyzed. So it is often pretty clear in these cases that something went very wrong.

[Tinbasher]

Gem I understand that this is a devastating event for you but survival after a ruptured anyurism is so rare that there are few studies on the risk of paraplegia. Something DID go wrong, your Aorta ruptured and you were bleeding out! Surgey saved your life but paralysed you.

Of course you want to blame somone but you know shit happens and it has happened to all of us. Anger and blame are a natural reaction but it can drag you down.

You might want to look at some of the studies but the one below http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/7133751 suggests that instead of looking to blame the surgeon you should be thanking him for saving your life. The red highlighting is mine...


Paraplegia following aortic surgery.
Lynch C, Weingarden SI.
Abstract
It has long been recognised that paraplegia may occur after various surgical procedures on the heart and the aorta. Paraplegia occurring following traumatic rupture of the aorta has not been commonly reported due to the dismal prognosis of such rupture. Over the past 3 years, we have encountered five patients who survived traumatic rupture of the aorta and developed paraplegia,

[mellowgator]

this article says that chance of death is 80 to 90%. i would think you are one lucky guy.






http://www.norcalvas...pertise/pid:237

[greybeard]

Gem, on 22 June 2011 - 03:00 AM, said:

Usually, it is pretty straightforward that a surgery is not supposed to result in you becoming paralyzed. So it is often pretty clear in these cases that something went very wrong.

You had emergency surgery because you were dying. If something had gone wrong, you would be dead. The surgical team saved your ungrateful damned life.

Just think, if you had died, you could have really sued the arse of him. Wouldn´t that have made you happy!

[Gem]

My aneurysm had not ruptured prior to surgery. The surgeon told me prior to surgery that I had a 97% chance of having a good procedure. Afterwards he said that paralysis happens so rarely in my type of procedure that it isn't worth mentioning.

[Tetracyclone]

Gem, on 02 July 2011 - 03:32 AM, said:

My aneurysm had not ruptured prior to surgery. The surgeon told me prior to surgery that I had a 97% chance of having a good procedure. Afterwards he said that paralysis happens so rarely in my type of procedure that it isn't worth mentioning.

Gem,

I see you do indeed have cause to be angry. Clearly the surgeon was a bit wrong. While it may be impossible to seek compensation for his being incompetent (seems from the other posts he/she was not), you might be able to sue him/her for being a horse's arse.

At the very least try some counseling because you have every reason to be heart-broken and pissed.

[Apparelyzed]

So what you would be suing him for is not telling you there would of been a rare chance of ending up a paraplegic.

You would of still needed the operation eventually, or you would of died.

And as you would of needed the operation, the same risks would of still applied.

I think it'd be a difficult case, but I'm in the UK, so not sure how this would work out where you are.

If you do sue, be sure you have a good case, and make sure you're suing for the right reasons.

Simon

[Trinity]

if the surgeon had said there was a risk would it have affected your decision to go ahead with the surgery? I know you may have been a bit more mentally prepared when it happened but in all honesty if the risk was quoted to you, for example, as >1:100 you will have still gone ahead with the surgery as the odds are so small. However they are still odds and to get odds then someone must have suffered the same fate. It's a shame the surgeon didn't explain this. Any risk, no matter how small should be quoted however you will need to prove the surgeon was negligent in his actions and that can be difficult depending on the records of the event

[Gem]

WoW ! I think that I may have joined the wrong peer support arena ! Arena being the optimum word for the response I received from my FIRST post.

Instead of help from a peer support group my overwhelming response was lectures, castigation and even damnation for leading an ungrateful life. Greybeard, Apparalyzed, Trinity, please go back and read my initial question. Please tell me how your responses addressed those two questions without a massive amount of assumptions on your part. My intention was to try to get some sense of how many others are out there that were given one set of information prior to surgery and a totally different set of information when things don't work out so well. The possibility of paralysis was never mentioned to me prior to surgery and those odds that Trinity spoke of only came up after the fact and were 5,000 to 1.

In the United States a Doctor must obtain an INFORMED CONSENT before any procedure as serious as an AAA repair. It certainly appears to me that in several countries a "pie in the sky" set of information is being handed out prior and an "apology and have a good life" are given out when that is not the result. It makes no difference that surgery is the only option, one still has the right to accurate prior information.

[greybeard]

Gem, on 04 July 2011 - 10:31 PM, said:

In the United States a Doctor must obtain an INFORMED CONSENT before any procedure as serious as an AAA repair.

If he didn't fully inform you, and that is the rule, you didn't need any support or advice from anyone here. Go ahead and sue if that's what you want, but I bet he made it abundantly clear that if you did not have the surgery your life was in imminent danger of ending.

[ClaraTaylor]

You sound a very angry person, and the kind that's not going to pay any attention to what my learned friends say. I am impressed they are even bothering, but then these wonderful people often impress me.

So go ahead get off the internet and try and sue the doctor for saving your life / crippling you / not giving you every little detail. See what happens, you never know you might strike lucky. Either way - go speak to a solicitor not a bunch of cripples with limited legal teachings.

[Apparelyzed]

Ok, let's try again!

There are members on here who have resulted in paraplegia following Aortic surgery.

They may be worth contacting using the PM function, to see if the were successful in winning a legal case against a surgeon. Even if they did not pursue a legal case, they may know of someone in the same situation that was successful.

Their posts are here:

http://www.apparelyz...ic/18309-t6-t9/

http://www.apparelyz...wbie-saying-hi/

http://www.apparelyz...n-i-do-to-help/

http://www.apparelyz...30-so-confused/

http://www.apparelyz...-pass-the-time/

http://www.apparelyz...oducing-myself/

http://www.apparelyz...t-want-to-talk/

Hope that helps, in addition to my original reply.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, there is a good article on surgery and abdominal aortic aneurysms and paraplegia here: http://journals.lww....t_s_the.2.aspx#

Simon

[Gem]

Thanks, Apparelyzed. This is the type of information I was looking for. So far your information has revealed 8 paraplegics from AAA repair. Hope that most of them are still around. Greybeard, you finally got something right! He did make it abundantly clear that if I didn't have the surgery that my life was in immenent danger of ending. He went on to sell me a Bentley at full MSRP, woke the next day in a mini-cooper up on blocks with the wheels missing. What the Hey ! a car is a car !

[lavenderthistle]

And they told you NOTHING gem? Thats a bit infuriating. You should consider something for pain and suffering I guess, but being alive is It's own special luxury.

I was warned that I had a very real risk of paralysis through surgery, vs a certainty without it. I was pretty over the moon when I woke up with a spinal cord 'ding'. I was prepared to feel nothing and elated to feel anything.

Do what you need to with the lawsuit but for your own sanity realize life is a beautiful incredible gift to cherish no matter the package whether it be wheeling, shuffling, limping, wobbling or come with a pimp stick. Life is what you make it. Life is also a crazy symphony and sometimes the instruments get stuffed and battered but still work to play their piece.


***warning may be daft due to lack of sleep*****