Medical Malpractice Case Report: $2.5 million settlement for failure to diagnose and treat post-surgical young woman for post-gastric reduction surgery neuropathy
2009
Firm Partner Dan O'Fallon and Wendy Zeller achieved a settlement of $2.5 million for a young woman for a failure to diagnose medical malpractice case involving the failure to timely diagnose and treat post-surgical patient for post-gastric reduction surgery neuropathy. Read the following Minnesota Case Report, Vol.28, No.2, Apr. 2009
Selected Results*
(Excerpts taken with permission from Minnesota Trial Lawyer Association’s (MTLA) “Minnesota Case Reports”)This is a medical negligence case involving a single woman in her late twenties who suffered permanent neurological injuries after undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. The particular focus was the care the patient received after the gastric bypass procedure. In the months following the surgery, the patient experienced prolonged rapid weight loss accompanied by ongoing nausea, frothing, vomiting, weakness and fatigue. She also required hospitalization for dehydration and oral intake intolerance.
Approximately four months after the surgery, she also started to experience numbness and tingling in her legs, toes and hands and reported these symptoms to her health care providers. The symptoms progressed to weakness in the legs and difficulty walking and standing. Eventually she was diagnosed with post-gastric reduction surgery neuropathy, which plaintiff contended was caused by ongoing malnutrition.
Plaintiff's attorneys and expert contended that had the nutritional deficits been timely diagnosed and appropriately treated with ongoing nutritional support, the plaintiff's permanent neurological injuries would have been either avoided entirely or greatly lessened. However, plaintiff suffered irreversible neurological injuries, which include the inability to walk without braces on both legs, motor and sensory impairments in the hands, arms, feet and legs and permanent neuropathic pain.
Settlement: $2,500,000
Related Links
Failure to Diagnose Serious Medical Conditions LawyersMedical Malpractice Lawyers