7 replies to this topic

[sam4012]

Has anyone brought a suit against hospital or private insurance co. in a spinalcord injury situation?
When I arrived in La. that early am. from DFW I most certainly gave the neurosurgeon my ok to do surgery to repair spinal cord injury after showing me xrays of my daughter's fractured and burst lumbar/discs at c4 5 6 with c4 completely shattered. Why didn't he do the surgery sooner? His answer is he wanted to wait for any swelling to go down before doing the corpectomy. So he waited over 72 hrs. and pumped her full of methlpredlisone to keep cord from swelling. Should I have pursued a lawsuit. that wasn't the only thing that happened to her in hospital (15 days )before I requested her to be airflighted out to Dallas Tx. to start some type of physical therapy process.

[Vanessamaee]

My parents didnt file a suit because the doctor gave them a good reason not to perform my surgery right away (I had a hematoma) so it got postponed 5 days. I would talk to the doctor and ask for a good explanation. Doctors in general, know what theyre doing and will do what they can, there couldve been to much swelling which may have caused more damage to the spinal cord... I guess its just how the situation was. Im not a doctor or lawyer, but didnt file a suit.

[sci1998]

Is there any information that states surgery while while there is swelling is wrong?

[sam4012]

sci1998, on 10 July 2011 - 06:03 PM, said:

Is there any information that states surgery while while there is swelling is wrong?

Better view of spinal column? Less trauma to the area of surgery?

[Tetracyclone]

It is standard procedure to give methlpredlisone to control swelling and the first hospital I was taken to used a standard protocol of avoiding surgery in the belief that broken necks heel just as well without surgery. So there seem to be varying beliefs among doctors about how to treat cord injuries.

That said, they explained that many doctors believed differently and offered to refer me down the road to a teaching hospital where another doctor had been consulted and recommended surgery. My husband decided for the surgery.

An ambulance immediately transported me and the Doctor met me and my husband in the lobby as I was brought in. He had me in OR within 40 minutes, so yes, some believe haste is good.

My guess is there is no widely accepted protocol for this question, and therefore your daughter's doctor did not betray standard practice. Short answer: no grounds for litigation. Keep in mind that the most damage is done by swelling and your guy gave your daughter the most accepted treatment for this danger.

I am very sorry this happened to your daughter and pray she regains much strength and many abilities.

[airart1]

they waited on me for 4 days before surgery, full of steroids for the swelling to go down........apparently it didnt help!

[qbounce]

Weights were attached to my head via a halo for 3 days in the hopes of slipping the disc back into place.
This would have prevented a major fusion, but of course, it didn't work.

I think surgery, no matter how severe or invasive, is always the final answer to solve an issue.

[dom]

i was waiting two weeks in slovakia then 2 in uk [4 weeks total] lol after a month in bed the room service wore a little thin