Articles Posted in Neurosurgery Errors

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Dr. Fangxiang Chen was an agent of Mercy Clinic East Communities.

Dr. Chen allegedly recommended that the plaintiff, Natalie Avilez, 39, undergo a minimally invasive right-sided microdiscectomy at T7-8. A microdiscectomy procedure is a type of minimally invasive discectomy commonly used to treat a herniated disc. When a herniated disc compresses a spinal nerve, symptoms can include pain (which may extend down one or both arms and legs, as is the case in sciatica), muscle weakness and difficulty with repetitive motions.

After the surgery, Avilez learned from Dr. Chen that he had operated on the wrong side of her spine and on the wrong level. The next day, Dr. Chen returned Avilez to surgery during which he performed a T6-7 laminectomy before intraoperative imaging showed he was still at the wrong level. Resulting from these incorrect surgeries, Avilez experienced additional pain and increased anxiety.
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Kiersten Sparger underwent a lumbar laminoplasty performed by Dr. Bakhtiar Yamini, an employee of the University of Chicago Medical Center. The procedure took place on March 30, 2015.

On April 27, 2015, Dr. Yamini saw Kiersten again because her wound was leaking spinal fluid. Dr. Yamini instructed his staff to “overstitch” the wound. Dr. Yamini informed Kiersten and her father, Jeff Sparger, that she could not be admitted to the hospital due to a nursing strike. A pouch developed at the wound site and Kiersten was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center on May 13, 2015 with a fever and significant neck pain. Dr. Yamini surgically repaired the leak. However, Kiersten developed infectious meningitis and suffered cognitive damage.

Jeff Sparger, on behalf of his daughter Kiersten, filed suit against Dr. Yamini and the University of Chicago Medical Center.
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Gloria Tirado and Christian Tirado were plenary guardians of Gina Gutierrez, who brought a medical malpractice case against Drs. Konstantin Slavin and Gerald Oh. In the suit, it was alleged that the doctors negligently performed spinal surgery on Gutierrez and were negligent in their follow-up care.

In answer, Dr. Slavin raised an affirmative defense of contributory negligence for Gutierrez’s failure to seek treatment and follow medical advice. The case went to a jury trial and during plaintiffs’ closing argument, Dr. Slavin and his counsel came to the aid of a suddenly ill juror.

The plaintiffs moved for a mistrial the following morning, which the trial court denied. The trial court then entered judgment on the jury’s verdict in favor of Dr. Slavin and denied plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. An appeal was taken in which the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the entry of judgment in favor the defendant physicians.

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As Clare Linzell’s parents became concerned about her repetitive behaviors and attention span, they asked a neurologist, Dr. Yassar Awaad, to examine their 4-year-old daughter. Dr. Awaad is a pediatric neurologist.

Dr. Awaad conducted several EEGs, diagnosed epilepsy, and prescribed anti-seizure and anti-depressant medications.

The epilepsy treatment continued for years until another doctor diagnosed Clare as having an autism spectrum disorder, not epilepsy.
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Patricia Bent underwent a right laminectomy performed by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Navinder Sethi. Although the surgery was successful, she developed pain, numbness and tingling on her left side. She returned to Dr. Sethi, who recommended a bilateral laminectomy at L3-4.

Unfortunately, during that surgery, Bent suffered a right-side dural tear, which led to leakage of cerebral-spinal fluid and caused permanent nerve damage.

After this surgery, Bent, 64, was unable to feel anything on her right side from her waist down to her foot. That prevented her from walking independently, driving, or continuing her work as a nurse where she was earning approximately $70,000 per year.
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Samuel Chifalo, 63, fell and hit his head. An ambulance crew arrived and put a cervical collar on before taking him to Parkview Medical Center.

At the hospital, the staff noted that Chifalo had difficulty moving his arms and legs. Nevertheless, emergency room physician Dr. Ashley Ostrand did not document this condition after doing a physical exam and recording Chifalo’s medical history. The doctor ordered CT scans of Chifalo’s neck and head and discharged him from the hospital with a referral to an orthopedic surgeon.

The next day, Chifalo was unable to walk and returned to the emergency room at the same hospital. This time Dr. Ostrand ordered MRIs of his head and cervical and thoracic spinal cord regions. Chifalo was then diagnosed as having a spinal cord injury at C3-4 with quadriparesis. Despite rehabilitation, Chifalo continued to suffer from paralysis.
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The Florida Supreme Court has held that the trial court committed reversible error by allowing testimony by deposition of a patient’s treating neurosurgeon. The doctor testified at trial about what he would have done had the patient arrived at the hospital 1-2 hours earlier.

Alexis Cantore, 12 years old at the time, suffered a brain herniation resulting from hydrocephalus. Alexis and her parents sued two hospitals claiming that her untimely transport to a higher-level hospital led to a delayed treatment and late brain surgery to attempt to release the pressure on the brain.

At the jury trial, over the plaintiff’s objections, the first hospital offered the deposition testimony of the pediatric neurosurgeon who operated on Alexis. The doctor answered hypothetical questions about how he would have treated Alexis had she arrived at the second hospital 1-2 hours earlier. The jury found in favor of the defendants.
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A  man with impaired cardiac, respiratory and cognitive function was diagnosed as having a benign brain tumor. This was a tumor that — in most cases — could have been safely removed by a neurosurgeon. A neurosurgeon, known here only as Dr. Roe, performed the surgery to extract the tumor. However, Dr. Roe was unable to remove the mass during the surgery.

As a result of a failure to remove the tumor, the patient suffered vision loss and balance problems after the procedure. He died of unrelated causes 22 months later.

His family sued Dr. Roe and the clinic where Dr. Roe worked, claiming that Dr. Roe chose not to follow an accepted approach in the surgery to remove the tumor.

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