What should have been a routine back surgery left a Rhode Island woman with permanent disabling injuries after the surgery was performed without appropriate surgical precautions.
Suffering from an underlying inflammatory disease that can cause vertebrae to fuse, our client was in search of pain relief. When her doctors denied her surgery, she reached out to her former orthopedic surgeon for help. After a brief consultation, she underwent elective surgery, trusting she was in good hands. Unfortunately, when she woke up post-operative, she immediately noticed she could not move her legs.
After several consequential surgeries with no change to her paralysis or explanation of why she was now permanently bound to a wheelchair, she contacted our team to get some answers. Immediately, our personal injury litigation team of partner Joseph P. Marasco, senior trial counsel Mark H. Grimm, paralegal Sara Squillace, and legal assistant Lisa Hanlon opened communication with our client to uncover where things went wrong.
Understanding the situation’s complexity, we contacted several medical experts to review our client’s records, including a board-certified Neurosurgeon with special expertise in complex spinal injury. His professional opinion suggested that the decision to recommend and proceed with the initial surgery was below the standard of care, putting our client at risk. And failure to take appropriate and available safety precautions during and after surgery substantially contributed to the outcome of this case.
This lapse of judgment completely altered every aspect of our client’s life, and nothing will be the same moving forward. There is no way to prepare for such catastrophic physical and mental adjustments. Still, we were grateful for the opportunity to help ease the stress of long-term financial damage by reaching a settlement of $3,000,000.