Back Neck Surgery Malpractice Attorney – Botched Spinal Fusion

A large percentage of Americans suffer from chronic spinal and neck pain due to a prior sports injury, auto accident, slip and fall or workplace injury. In many instances, after many attempts to resolve their back pain via less invasive measures, patients elect to undergo back or neck surgery. In most cases, spine and/or neck surgery will successfully resolve a patient’s medical issues with no complications. Such surgeries and among the most common of spinal operations include L4-L5 surgery, C4-C5 fusion, as well as C-5 and C-6 replacement surgery. However, in some cases, patients who undergo such procedures will suffer severe injuries due to the surgical errors of surgeons and or other medical providers. Below you will find important information regarding the back and neck operation malpractice and the availability of financial recovery for victims. If you have any further legal questions after reading this article feel free to contact our law offices. All legal consultations and case reviews are provided by our attorneys free of charge.

Some of the most common risks associated with lumbar, thoracic, and other spinal and neck surgery include the contraction  of severe life-threatening infections, nerve damage resulting in foot drop, complete or partial paralysis of the limbs, paraplegia, chronic back pain or increase in pain, blood clots resulting in DVT and pulmonary embolism, CRPS Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, nerve injury, and unnecessary scarring of the skin and tissue.

Common Types of Back Surgery Where Surgical Errors are Common: Below is a list of some of the most common back surgeries where there is a high possibility of severe complications resulting from a medical error.

• Spinal decompression surgery for pinched nerves.
• Laminotomy or foraminotomy
• Discectomy or Discectomy – partial or complete removal of a disc due to a herniation.
• Disc replacement surgery
• Cervical fusion surgery – single or multilevel fusion
• Lumbar fusion surgery
• Bone graft fusion surgery
• Epidural and steroid injections
• Procedures using the laparoscopic method – laser surgery
• L4-L5 surgery
• C4-C5 fusion
• C-5 replacement
• C-6 replacement
• Lumbar and Thoracic operation

Loss Of Eyesight After Spine Surgery

It has been shown that people can lose their eyesight after a spinal surgery. The postoperative visual loss (POLV) is a condition and complication of a failed spinal surgery, whereby the individual loses vision after the surgical procedure. Some people with this condition will have blurred vision, to where others can have total irreversible and complete vision loss that leads to blindness.

You may be wondering “But how can this happen?” Well, the answer is quite clear. The reason for vision loss after a spinal surgery, is that the person is operated on lying down, and the pressures of blood during the surgery may rise, creating a problem with the eyes after the surgical procedure is finished. Remember, a spinal surgery can take anywhere from 2 to 8 hours to perform, and there are tremendous pressures on the person’s body as this surgical procedure is being performed. The pressure that can build up in the eyes is tremendous, can cause blindness and other issues, if the person is not monitored properly during the surgery.

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Visual Impairment – Droopy Eyelids After Spine Surgery

The surgery of a spine is not a straight forward surgery by any means. This being said, anything else can go wrong with the body, just based off of mistakes made in a spinal surgery. The case in point is the person developing blepharoptosis (ptosis) or droopy eyes after a surgery on the spine. When a person has ptosis, it means that the eyelid muscles are weak, and cause the eyelids to droop downwards.

Medically, the eyelid is held up with a complex set of muscles, that will keep the eyelid upright at all times. If the eyelid starts to droop, then the eyelid will look lowered and hang down unnaturally. The person will look perpetually sleepy, and corrective surgery may be needed to help fix this situation. People never remember that the entire body is all interconnected in a wonderful marvelous mash of cells, nerves and muscles. It seems incredible, but a nerve system can be destroyed after a botched spinal fusion, which can result in a droopy eye effect on the person who underwent the surgical procedure.

If this has happened to you, you need to call our law office right away. We will know what to do to get you the money that you deserve from the people who botched your spinal fusion surgery. You just need to give us a call, and we will know how to start the process to getting you the recovery compensation that you need in this type of case.

Loss of Hearing After Spine Surgery

It is not all that unusual for a person to lose hearing after a botched spinal surgery. This condition is referred to as postoperative hearing loss, or a hearing loss that occurs specifically after a surgical procedure. This is a mistake, and it can happen when a mistake is made that affects the individual’s hearing during or after the operation. Any time that a normally hearing person becomes a disabled individual who has diminished to no hearing after a surgical procedure, this can be a traumatic event. By not being able to hear clearly any more, the individual may also experience other problems, such as vascular issues, balance, vertigo and tinnitus problems. Your balance is also affected by your hearing, and a person with diminished hearing can experience balance problems after this type of surgical mistake.

It is difficult to diagnose a treatment for bringing back hearing after it is lost due to a spinal fusion surgery. Some possible treatments may include the following (every case is different, and some of these may never apply to one person or another):

• Bedrest
• Hydration increase
• Cochlear vasodilators
• Steroid shots
• Betahistine
• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• Epidural blood patches
• Plasma extenders
• Carbogen inhalation
• Drugs to reduce inflammation and ear pressures
• Drugs to improve blood circulation

You need to talk to an attorney who knows what to do, when this traumatic event occurs after a spinal surgery. We are able to discuss this case with you and help you to identify the next steps, if you have experienced hearing loss after a spinal surgery.

Incontinence Urination – Can’t Hold Urine After Spine Surgery

The condition of urinary incontinence can occur after a spinal fusion surgery. This condition means that the person who has had spinal surgery will after the surgery be unable to hold in his or her urine normally. This is a rather personally sensitive condition, whereby the individual suffering from the condition will be highly embarrassed by it on all fronts. Urinary incontinence can occur after a spinal surgery where some mistake in the surgery affects the ability of the person to hold urine. There could have been muscle or nerve damage in the area of the body that affects the bladder, and its ability to securely hold in urine.

There are different types of urinary incontinence that can occur after a botched spinal surgery, including:

• Loss of urine
• Involuntary leaks of urine
• Urgency to urinate
• Urine with exertion
• Urine leaks after a sneeze or cough
• Urine leaks with pressure noted in lower abdomen
• Losing urine on the way to the toilet
• Feeling of an urgency to always run for a toilet
• Bladder contractions stimulating urge for urination
• Walking or standing from a chair urging urine
• Exercising triggering urine to come out
• No brain signal to wake up to urinate during sleep
• Poor bladder emptying during the day (always feeling “something is left over”)

The diagnosis of incontinence will be made by a medical professional, and it will depend on the diagnosis as to how this condition will need to be treated. The sufferer will undoubtedly feel embarrassed, ashamed, uneasy to be around others, and have pain and suffering because of a lowered quality of life.

Loss Of Taste – After a Spine Surgery

It is possible to lose the smell and taste of food, after having undergone a spinal surgery. The formal medical names for these conditions are anosmia, or the loss of smell, and ageusia, which is the loss of taste. Anosmia and ageusia are rare conditions that can occur after a spinal surgery, but they may be more apt to occur after a failed or botched spinal fusion surgical procedure.

It is difficult to impossible for a person to go into a spinal surgery being able to smell fresh cooked food, and taste savory spices in a dish of food, and to come out of the spinal surgery unable to smell or taste food properly again. Tasting and smelling food and other objects in our environment are important to our survival – we all need to properly taste and smell with the properties that we were born with in this life.

The action of tasting and smelling are accomplished in our bodies, with a complex combination of the brain receiving impulses from our nose and mouth (read: taste buds). Your tongue has almost 5,000 receptor taste buds, to distinguish the fine flavors of food, and determine salty, sweet, bitter or acid, as well as umami (which can distinguish glutamate and inosinic acid – think fish, beef, cheese, tomatoes, etc.) food tastes.

If you are wondering how this can happen, it can happen quite easily. If the anesthesia is injected or placed near a nerve, then it can result in damage to that nerve to prompt loss of taste in the person affected. Olfactory receptor cells are able to possibly regenerate themselves over time, but if they cannot, then the person suffering with this condition will have a serious reduction in the quality of life. Similarly, if an individual loses tasting capabilities forever, that individual will also have a high level of pain and suffering related to the loss as well. That pain and suffering will need to be included in a final settlement package when the case is settled.

Electing to File a Lawsuit – Winning Your Case in the Court of Law
Medical malpractice can be established if the practicing surgeons failed to follow specific criteria for the procedure established by the specialty he is a member of. The majority of medical error cases are predicated on the negligence theory cause of action. There are four basic elements that need to be proven in order to establish a basis for medical malpractice in the court of law.

• Duty: A medical physician has a duty to follow specific guidelines established by his or her medical profession at large with respect to any procedure or operation conducted on a patient.
• Breach of duty: A breach of a duty of care takes place if there was a failure to follow the guidelines.
• Causation: The breach of a duty of care needs to be the cause of the damages suffered by the patient.
• Damages: The victim needs to have suffered identifiable and diagnosable injuries.

Other Causes of Malpractice: Other than mistakes or errors during a procedure, other avenues for establishing medical negligence in these cases include the following…

• Surgeons Failure to utilize other alternatives with a reduced probability of harm in comparison to the procedure which caused the harm.
• Failure to receive proper informed consent from the patient.

Financial Recovery Available for Victims
Victims of personal injury resulting from the improper actions of others have the right to receive financial recovery for all damages sustained. Recovery is available in the following categories.

• Recovery of all medical expenses and rehabilitation care.
• All future medical care expenses including rehabilitation and nursing care, if needed.
• Loss of earning and future loss of income potential due to long-term chronic pain and disability.
• Pain and suffering recovery – victims have the right to receive recovery for the physical pain and emotional distress they have had to endure.
• Punitive Damage Compensation: Many courts will award victims of personal injury punitive damage recovery. Punitive damages are awarded when the at-fault party acted with the intent to cause harm or acted in gross negligence/recklessness towards the health and well being of others.
• Loss of Consortium: Married spouses of victims have a right to financial recovery on behalf of the loss of physical and emotional intimacy they have had to endure due to the physical injuries suffered by their husband or wife.

Cost of Hiring an Attorney:  One of the most frequent rationales as to why many victims of medical malpractice choose not to pursue a claim against their doctor is the seemingly high costs of legal representation. Many law firms will initially ask victims for thousands of dollars in a retainer fee; while others will ask for many thousands more just to review potential client’s medical records.  Our law firm will never ask you to provide us any money. We work strictly on a contingency fee basis. This means that our fees and our costs will be applied only if there is a successful resolution of your case. If we are not successful you will not have to pay us a single penny. To learn more about our ZERO FEE Guarantee see here…

Attorney Case Review Free of Charge: If you have any further questions and would like to speak with an attorney regarding your case contact our law offices. All consultations and case reviews are provided by our legal team free of charge.

Further Information:

CRPS Caused by Surgical Mishaps

Hand and Wrist Procedure Malpractice

How Much Is a Spinal Cord Injury Medical Malpractice Case Worth?