A New Jersey man received a settlement for $2.25 million after a court ruled that the two surgeons who performed his lumbar fusion surgery in 2011 were negligent when they mispositioned a pedicle screw and failed to diagnose and correct the error in a timely fashion. As a result of the error, the patient suffered from pain and numbness and required a second surgery.
The patient worked as a forklift mechanic until 2008, when he suffered a work injury that damaged his L5-S1 discs. Back problems resulting from the accident left him unable to work as a mechanic. Hoping to regain some of his ability to work, he underwent lumbar fusion surgery in March 2011, at which time he was in his 50s. A neurosurgeon and an orthopedic surgeon performed the procedure and placed pedicle screws.
Lumbar fusion is a surgery that connects two or more vertebrae of the lumbar spine, the lowest part of the spinal column, to prevent them from moving, thus preventing the pain caused by pressure on the spinal cord. A bone graft or piece of artificial material is placed between the bones being fused, and over time, they grow together. To hold the bones and the connecting material in place, surgeons place screws in the pedicles of the vertebrae being fused. Herniated discs, like what the patient suffered as a result of his work injury, are an indicator for spinal fusion surgery.
The pedicle screw impinged on the L5 nerve root, causing the patient to suffer post-surgical complications, such as pain in the right leg, numbness in the right calf, and weakness in the toes of the right foot. The attorneys for the plaintiff argued that, as soon as the patient began complaining of complications, the surgeons should have done a CT scan or MRI, which would have revealed that the screw was incorrectly positioned. In fact, they did not do these tests until January 2013. Meanwhile, the attorneys for the defendants argued that the patient’s symptoms are not the classic symptoms that would make a physician suspect a mispositioned screw, and therefore that the surgeons did not breach the standard of care by failing to check the position of the screw. The patient underwent another surgery in May 2013 to correct the mispositioned screw.
The jury’s verdict awarded $4.5 million to the plaintiff. He only received $2.25 million because he had entered into a high-low agreement before the verdict was reached. A high-low settlement agreement is a contract between the parties in a lawsuit, establishing the minimum and maximum amount the plaintiff can take if the court rules in his favor. It helps defendants reduce their financial risk and protects plaintiffs from strike motions to their awards.
It would not have been possible for the jury to determine whether or not the defendants’ actions were within the standard of care if not for the valuable information provided in this case by expert medical witnesses.
