Spinal Surgery Hardware Malfunction

[Germain]

I am a 41yr old female with scoliosis. I was diagnosed in Jan 2007. My pain doctor did several mri's, xrays and said that spinal surgery was the only way i could get my pain under control.  I was refereed to a neurologist who confirmed that i needed spinal surgery.  I had a fusion done as well as a bone marrow transplant to grow new bone where they had to align my spine.  I had titanium plate, screws, 2 rods put in and told it would take 2yrs to see any results from the surgery. Six months after surgery i told the doctor(pain doctor) i was having severe pain in my right leg and major decrease in my numbness.  My leg was so weak that i had to drag it at times.  I was told by the doc that it would just take time. I finally got to see my surgeon who did xrays and said that my surgery was considered a "failed back surgery" b/c the pain was still horrific and he said the first fusion i had done had caused my spine to weaken so they needed to go back in and do another fusion right above the first fusion to fix the weak spot.  I went in for the 2nd surgery in Oct 2011. During this surgery is when the doc discovered the "broken screw". Doc tried to fix the problem(he spent an hour digging around * exploratory* at this point)  and decided to leave the screw there b/c it was causing too much damage to remove it. I still have severe weakness and permanent damage to my right leg b/c of this. I have had to file for disability b/c i can't work.  I don't know where to go from here and i'm not sure i even have a lawsuit.  I live in Nashville TN.  Can you please point me in the right direction.  I appreciate any help.

[Barhloew]

Shannon: Very sorry that you have been through so much pain and suffering.  First thing to do is get your Operative Report from when the hardware was placed.  You have a right to those records.  While you are at it, get a copy of your entire medical record, from both surgeries and hospitalization.  Next step you can do on your own also.  In the records of the hardware surgery, in the Operative Report or Nurses Operating Room Record will be product labels with bar codes that were taken from the packaging for the hardware.  Note down the brand, lot number and serial number of the failed part.  Then, google for "name of part/screw lawsuit" or similar.  See if anywhere in the country any lawfirm is handling cases like yours as a product liability case.  If so, that is who you contact.  If you come up empty, no such product case can survive on its own..........way too expensive......need hundreds or thousands of people with similar problems.  In that event, you have to investigate whether there was medical malpractice.  Your case would be very difficult and complicated but your damages are so high that it might be of interest to a large firm. If they have interest, your entire medical history must be reviewed by an orthopedic/neurologic surgeon to see if your surgeon did something that DEPARTED BY A MILE,IN FACT  100 MILES from the accepted(standard of care) method of doing your surgeries. =In other words, if 10 surgeons looked at was done, at least 7-8 of them would say "My God, what was that surgeon thinking?  A case like Shannon's should never be handled that way" and "that departure from the standard was the cause of Shannon not getting better, not the hardware or any other cause such as bad luck".  So, that will cost your lawyer thousands to get that opinion.  So, getting to that point is the goal now. If your expert does opine that there was malpractice, then your lawyer would take the next step of filing suit.  The case would have costs in the range ofg $20,000 to $50,000 so you can see that many lawyers can be expected to turn your down.  Take note that there is a one year Statute of Limitations in TN for med mal but in this case you would have one year from when you learned for the first time that something went wrong with surgery #1 so  you probably have ONLY UNTIL OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR, 2012 to file suit. After that time, you can't sue at all. Better start contacting big malpractice lawfirms in the State ASAP.  Save time by doing first two steps so that lawyers you contact will not need to order records that could take weeks. Good luck.