$1.25M Spinal Surgery Malpractice Settlement

Attorneys Mark W. Tanner and Peter M. Newman secured a $1.25 million settlement on behalf of a client who suffered severe and permanent spinal nerve damage due to an orthopedic surgeon’s operative and post-operative negligence.

The lawsuit arose from the surgeon’s performance of staged anterior and posterior reconstructive spinal surgery. The client made an appropriate post-operative recovery from the anterior portion of the surgery and underwent the posterior portion of the surgery three weeks later. As alleged in the lawsuit, during the posterior surgery, the surgeon placed pedicle screws at the L4 and L5 levels despite his own assessment that the patient’s left L4 pedicle was “unsuitable for fixation due to deformity related issues and inability to adequately visualize the area safely from a fluoroscopic perspective.” Unfortunately, the screw at the L4 level was mal-positioned such that it passed outside the pedicle and through the neural foramen. The surgeon failed to recognize the mal-positioned screw prior to closing the surgical field and then compounded the problem by failing to order a post-operative CT to confirm proper placement despite his acknowledged inability to adequately visualize the area safely from a fluoroscopic perspective.

Following the surgery, the client repeatedly reported extreme pain, particularly in the lower extremity, with new neurological symptoms that included loss of sensation, loss of strength, motor deficit in his left foot causing foot drop, as well as decreased sensation in his left thigh. These symptoms rendered him unable to walk. Yet, the surgeon still did not order a CT scan or other diagnostic and/or radiographic studies to determine the cause of his symptoms or to evaluate the placement of the pedicle screws.

The mal-positioned screw was finally discovered a month later when a new orthopedic surgeon evaluated the client. Under the care of the new surgeon, the client underwent a third surgery in which the surgeon performed an extensive decompression at L2-L3 and L3-L4 on both the left and right and a revision of the left side hardware with removal of the L4 pedicle screw. However, the client continued to suffer severe and permanent injuries to his spinal nerves, nerve roots and dorsal root ganglia which rendered him unable to ambulate without a wheelchair or even to stand unsupported.

Tanner and Newman were prepared to establish at trial that in addition to the negligently performed surgery, the first surgeon’s post-operative negligence caused a delay in treatment that increased the risk of harm to the client from the mal-positioned screw.

Claims for economic and non-economic damages were limited due to the client’s subsequent death from causes unrelated to the litigation.