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Firm Settles Surgical Malpractice Case For $750,000
Published on Monday, January 01, 2007
“It’s a procedure performed thousands of times a year without incident,” says former partner Steve Delamere, about winning this high profile, and costly case. “Costly because if proper post-surgical procedures are not followed, the damage to the patient can be extraordinary.”
”Our client had undergone back surgery for work-related herniated disks. He awoke from the procedure unable to move his legs, and soon after began to bleed from his incision. While nursing staff on call immediately contacted the defendant in the case and notified him of their concern over our client’s condition, he basically did nothing,” says Delamere.
The day after the surgery, as the internal bleeding from the incision continued, an on-staff neurosurgeon recommended immediate re-exploration of the surgical site, and contacted the defendant surgeon through his service twice, and even then the defendant did not begin the resurgery for approximately another 3 hours. ”It wasn’t until twenty hours after the original surgery, a delay fully caused by the defendant’s inaction, that our client went back to surgery. He underwent several procedures that would eventually stop his bleeding as well as retrieve a disk fragment and repair a muscle tear,” Delamere says.
The surgeon should have immediately examined our client upon his first complaints and ordered a scan of his back to rule out the possibility of an internal bleed.” ”Our client endured a long and difficult period of rehabilitation including a very serious infection, use of bilateral splints and a cane for walking.
The client still suffers from neuropathy of the feet, foot drop, decreased urological function, and limited mobility and range of motion, “ says Delamere. In his own deposition, while the defendant couldn’t remember many of the details of both surgeries, he acknowledged permanent nerve damage could have resulted from the collection of blood at the site of the injury.
”As a result of our aggressive and thorough pretrial preparation, we were able to achieve a settlement of $750,00 for our client without the risk of a trial,” Delamere adds. “ He can now continue his recovery with financial security.”