Medical Malpractice

Nurses Fail to Inform Surgeon of Pain and Numbness Following Laminectomy - When Epidural Hematoma is Diagnosed Hospital Fails to Provide Operating Room Emergently - Elderly Woman Rendered Paraplegic - $1.8 Million Verdict.


The plaintiff’s decedent, age eighty-seven at the time, was admitted to the defendant hospital for a laminectomy in January 2006. The surgery was successful, but the woman developed severe pain and other symptoms, including numbness and incontinence.

The nurses did not call the orthopedic surgeon.

During regular rounds the next morning the orthopedic surgeon found decedent with numb legs and in extreme pain. He ordered a stat CT scan which revealed an epidural hematoma which was compressing on the nerves. He asked for an operating room emergently, but the hospital did not provide one until mid-afternoon. A massive clot was removed during surgery.

The decedent became paraplegic due to the failures of the nurses and the hospital in providing the decedent with timely surgery. The woman died during the pendency of this matter.

The defendant claimed that any delay in the surgery made no difference in the outcome and that the decedent’s paraplegia could have been caused by her advanced age and progression of her spinal disease.

According to Litigation Reports a $1,818,583 verdict was returned.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.