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Here is an example of a medical malpractice lawsuit. In April 2016, a 45 year old man began to experience pain in his chest and ribs while working in construction as a scaffolder. His doctor diagnosed his condition as musculoskeletal pain and sent him on his way with a prescription for painkillers. Musculoskeletal pain can affect the bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves; it can either be widespread in the body or confined to one spot and is most commonly found in the lower back. Despite his prescription, the man’s symptoms persisted and worsened causing him to return to the emergency room in January 2017. That same day, an MRI scan was ordered which showed he had been initially misdiagnosed; the man had actually been suffering from a prolapsed, or herniated, disc and sciatica. He was sent home again with more painkillers and a treatment plan for physical therapy. The man left the hospital requiring the assistance of crutches to walk due to the extensive amount of pain.
Over the next few months, the man needed help to complete daily tasks and activities. He attended his physical therapy sessions but had trouble with the exercises and was still in agonizing pain. He began to lose a noticeable amount of weight, strength, and energy and eventually discontinued his therapy sessions when the pain was too much to endure. As a scaffolder, he wasn’t able to complete his job as normal which made his financial situation an added stress. In September of that year, 9 months after being diagnosed with the prolapsed disc, he began to feel pain all throughout his arm. He returned to his general practitioner (GP) and was told he had an ulnar nerve entrapment, which is an injury to a nerve on the outside of the hand that runs through the arm and fingers. His doctor made a referral at a spinal clinic for an orthopedic examination; during this assessment, the doctors at the spinal clinic recorded deterioration to his posture, continued pain in his scapula, and atrophy in his arm however no further action was taken.
About a month later, at the end of October 2017, he was suspected of having cancer so underwent various blood tests and got an x-ray of his chest. The results came back abnormal, however the only action taken was increasing his pain medication doses. At this point, he had lost around 55 lbs and his back pain had not subsided. In November, after further investigation the man was diagnosed with major bone abnormalities that required a biopsy and additional blood testing. The next day he had a CT scan, a biopsy of his bone marrow, and an additional MRI scan; results showed he had 14 fractures along his vertebra. He was diagnosed with myeloma, which is a rare cancer that forms in white blood cells known as plasma cells in the bone marrow. He was admitted to the hospital to undergo rigorous chemotherapy cycles and stem cell treatments and was told this condition is not curable. Once the doctors compared the November 2017 MRI scan to the original scan in February of 2017, it showed the myeloma had been there all along and initially missed causing treatment to be delayed by 9 months.
A settlement was reached during mediation in September of 2019; the Defendant admitted to medical negligence and misdiagnosis early on during legal negotiations. At the end of the case, the plaintiff stated, “through a process of mediation, secured me a six figure sum, in way of settlement for the negligence taken place and ultimately its life changing consequences.”
If you or a loved one has been subject to a misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, medical error or medical mistake, you should contact a medical malpractice lawyer, like a medical negligence lawyer in Cleveland, OH from Mishkind Kulwicki Law Co, L.P.A., as soon as possible. Time limits may apply.
