Articles Posted in Paraplegia

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A man was born with a chromosomal condition and began receiving medical assistance from the State’s social services. He subsequently suffered an injury during his corrective spinal injury surgery, which resulted in his partial paralysis. A medical malpractice action was commenced by the man’s sister on his behalf against the hospital and several doctors where the surgery was performed. The man continued to receive medical assistance from the State’s social services and they filed a lien for recovery from any award made in the medical malpractice action, for such assistance for which the third-party offender was found to be liable.

Consequently, the parties to the medical malpractice action reached a settlement. Based upon the proposed settlement, the state’s social service agreed to accept the sum of $102,423.56 to settle the lien. The amount necessary to settle the medical claim was premised on a letter from the social services stating that it would accept that amount on the lien against the proceeds of the personal injury lawsuit, based on the proposed settlement of the lawsuit for the sum of $1,600,000. The letter further provided that the state’s social services reserved the right to collect any unpaid balance of the lien if the man reached a further settlement that provided additional proceeds or if he should receive funds from another source such as the lottery.

The settlement of the medical malpractice action was approved by the Supreme Court with the direction that payment made to the state’s social service in the amount of $102,423.56, in full satisfaction of the lien to the date of the order.

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The Long Island complainant man went to the emergency room of a hospital complaining of weakness in his lower extremities and severe lower back pain. He had gone to the emergency room five days earlier complaining of left hip and back pain, and was sent home with pain medication. The pain persisted, and he began experiencing weakness in his legs, twice falling or nearly falling when his legs buckled. He was able to walk, though with difficulty. During his emergency room visit, radiographic tests, including a myelogram, were ordered, and the man was admitted to the hospital.

On the morning of 25 June 1994, the accused Manhattan anesthesiologist explained to the complainant man that he would need to administer a caudal block rather than general anesthesia for the myelogram because the man needed to be awake during the test. The radiologist performed the myelogram around 3:00 p.m. that day. The next morning, the man discovered he felt no pain, was numb from his hips down, and could not move his legs. The anesthesiologist and the nursing staff blamed the numbness and inability to move on the anesthesia, telling the man it had not yet worn off. The man thought this was strange because, in his experience, it usually took only four to five hours for the effects of anesthesia to wear off. He thought either something had gone wrong or his condition was worse than the doctors originally thought.

The myelogram revealed massive disc herniation causing spinal injury, and the accused man’s attending physician and neurologist advised the man that he urgently needed surgery. The neurologist performed a laminectomy and discectomy. However, the man remained paralyzed following the surgery.

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A teenager’s spinal cordwas destroyed in 1978 after she received a lethal dose of radiation at a hospital she was receiving cancer treatment from. She was awarded $7.6 million by a jury.

Some believed at the time that it was the single, largest payment awarded in a malpractice suit in the U.S. After the trial, the 18-year-old said that the jury was full of “wonderful people and now I have a chance for my life.”

The girl’s lawyers said that most of the money was going to have to go toward medical payments.

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“We heard the plane coming,” the plaintiff recalled. “You know when the bomb bays doors open, the bombs start to whistle. And when you hear the whistling, you know something’s going to be a bustin’.”

It took 36 years, but that man was finally compensated for the injury he received during the accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1944 when the man’s spinal cord was severed by shrapnel. An errant bomber dropped 36 fragmentation bombs on his family’s home and land, missing his target by 10 miles.

He clearly remembers what the incoming bombs sounded like. He also remembers running. He ran almost to the front porch of his uncle’s farmhouse. Those steps proved to be his last steps – ever, taken at 12 years of age.

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A new scientific model may help spinal cord injury specialists more quickly determine whether a patient has a good chance of walking again before surgery and physical therapy. Current models include extensive tests that may not be as conclusive. The new model was developed in the Netherlands and is based on many different studies and findings by experts in the area of spinal injury.

Components of this model include a patients’ age, range of current motor skills, and sensitivity to touch. Older tests, such as the AIS grading system, take much longer to perform and may not be as accurate. The researchers who compiled the information to create the new model claim specialists need to be experienced in performing physical examinations of those with spinal injuries in order to make a proper diagnosis using the components in the model. Many specialists in Staten Island and Westchester have the ability to perform these examinations and should be able to tell if a patient will be able to walk again.

This study about the new model was published in The Lancet. Many new studies are available at different times during the year and provide researchers around the world with new and useful information. Being able to predict quickly whether a patient will be able to walk again may prevent painful and unnecessary surgery or a grueling physical therapy regime that could cause additional injury. This may also lower medical care costs by allowing patients to leave the hospital earlier or reduce medications prescribed if additional surgery is not necessary to repair the spinal cord.

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In 1982 jury, in Seattle, Washington, awarded $6.3 million to a high school football player who sustained serious spinal injuries while playing for the school’s team.

That judgment worried one school official. He worried that school boards across the country would be prompted to review the benefits of sports programs unfairly against the possible costs of lawsuits. Programs that could lead to injury, he argued, could possibly be unnecessarily cut.

At the time of the settlement, the claimant was 21 years old.

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The family of paralyzed Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand has informed the school that he has been released from the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and will live with his aunt in Jackson.

LeGrand was paralyzed from the shoulders down when he suffered a spinal cord injurywhile making at tackle in a game on October 16th, 2010 against Army. He spent the time from November 8 until the end of March 2011 recuperating.

“This is an exciting day for me to return to living with family,” LeGrand said in a statement. “My family and I can’t thank Kessler enough for all the tremendous care and support I received as I continue rehab from my injury. It has meant so much to me to receive so many well wishes and prayers from everyone.”

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A New York television station was awarded three Bronze Telly awards recently, one of which featured a man from Byron, New York, who suffered a paralyzing injury.

The station runs a national health care series known as “Second Opinion”, which was awarded a Bronze Telly in their health and fitness category, because of an episode it produced on spinal cord injuries. The series features a doctor as a host who deliberates over medical cases with a panel of experts. They debate the diagnostic procedures the medical professionals employ, how the test results are interpreted, and decide upon the best course of action for the patient in question.

The victim on this particular award-winning show was a Bryon man who fell 20 feet out of a tree and was paralyzed from the waist down on May 7, 2007. According to source, he fell from a tree while attempting to rescue the family pet, a cockatiel from a tree. He had climbed that same tree numerous times before.

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The Paralyzed Veterans of America’s president appeared before Congress to urge the legislative body away from affecting their health care.

“Without a doubt, the Department of Veteran Affairs is the most effective health-care provider for veterans. The VA’s specialized services, including its system of spinal cord injury (SCI) care, are incomparable resources that are not duplicated in the private sector. These services are being threatened by proposed cost-cutting measures, the drive toward so-called ‘management efficiencies’ and, unfortunately, through politics,” the Paralyzed Veterans’ president told a researcher.

Using both oral and written statements, the president pled his case before the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. He urged immediate action on three main points. The first was the lack of staff at hospitals, especially nurses. According to Paralyzed Veterans, there are 140 nurses less than the minimum requirement for nursing personnel delivering care at the bedside. Secondly, the shortages in staff lead to fewer beds. The VA is in need of more nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and therapists, but because of the lack there were 288 unavailable SCI beds in the VA system. Finally, there is a lack of long-term care when it comes to veterans who suffer spinal cord injury or dysfunction. There is no specialized SCI long-term care beds west of the Mississippi and only 150 beds in the entire VA system.

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Spinal cord injuries can either be complete or incomplete paralysis. With a complete spinal cord injury individuals are not expected to improve. Of all of the spinal cord injuries, 50% of them are complete. When this occurs, the individual loses complete motor and sensory function where the injury occurred. Usually, paraplegia can occur at the point of the injury or below it. Most spinal cord injuries cause lower limbs to be paralyzed, a source mentioned.

An incomplete spinal cord injury can occur. There are three types of syndromes similar to thoracic spine injuries. These injuries can cause a variety of neurological deficits depending on the impact of the fracture on the spinal cord, a study stated. The three syndromes of an incomplete spinal cord injury can be anterior cord syndrome, Brown-Séquard syndrome, and central cord syndrome.

Anterior cord syndrome results in a failure of motor function and pain to happen. A loss of temperature sensation also occurs. The injury strikes in the front of the spinal cord. The limbs will regain their movement and equilibrium. The sensory inputs of the muscles and tendons are not affected by the injury. However, an individual with anterior cord syndrome does have to be cautious about what happens to the limbs after the injury to prevent bleeding or other injuries from occurring without the person realizing it, a doctor warned.

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