$1.25 Million Settlement Reached After Error During Back Surgery Resulted in Woman Having Both Legs Amputated | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

What Happened

Our client was struggling with back pain radiating down her left leg. She went to the defendant neurosurgeon, who advised her to undergo surgery on one or more discs in her lower back.

The neurosurgeon lost control of a surgical instrument during the procedure and cut three blood vessels in our client’s abdomen. Our client experienced extensive internal bleeding and had the flow of blood to her legs restricted.

A vascular surgeon was unable to repair the damage caused by the neurosurgeon. Deprived of the oxygen and nutrients carried by a sufficient flow of blood, our client’s legs became necrotic, meaning that they started dying and rotting. That terrible process also puts a patient at risk for deadly infections.

Eventually, doctors decided they had no choice but to amputate both of our client’s legs in order to save her life.

 

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Key Legal Strategy

Our Virginia-based medical malpractice law firm immediately retained the services of five surgical and medical experts who could testify on our client’s behalf. One of these experts was a vascular surgeon who often worked with defense attorneys in medical malpractice cases.

Knowing that they could not rely on one of “their” preferred experts and unable to blame our client’s leg amputation on the surgeon who merely tried to fix the problem caused by the neurosurgeon, the defense agreed to settle our client’s medical malpractice case. Before trial, the negligent neurosurgeon agreed to pay our client a total settlement of $1.25 million.

If you or a loved one has suffered at the hands of a negligent surgeon in Virginia, you can learn about your legal rights by clicking here. Our Virginia personal and wrongful death lawyers welcome opportunities to hold health care providers and hospitals accountable for harming or killing the patients they pledge to heal.

Court and Date: Newport News Circuit Court, VA, 2003

Staff: James C. Lewis, attorney