c_dickerson
Junior Member
Here is my story in a nutshell...
When I was in the 6th grade I was diagnosed with mod/severe scoliosis which was caught in the school screening. I had double curves opposite from the usual spines they saw.. Kind of like a question mark. Not too long after going to the orthopedic doctor and getting everything checked out, they tried the "back brace" on me.. Which was torture! During the summer after my 7th grade school year I had my first scoliosis spinal surgery where they fused most of my back (thoracic and some lumbar areas with 2 long metal rods, hooks, screws, donor bone, etc) This was really hard to go through, especially being only 12/13 years old.. But my loving parents made that hard decision after a lot of thought, prayer, research, and questioning the doctors. Right at about 2 years later, I was in a lot of pain and they took me in to see my back doctor. After taking some x-Rays, we found out that a screw broke towards the bottom of the fusion in the lumbar region and was causing the hardware to come undone. At this point I am in my 10th grade school year.. They scheduled my 2nd back surgery in October so I had to be homeschooled pretty much the rest of that year. During this surgery they removed the broken screw and repaired the rod system by extending the fusion down using more vertebrae.. They added two more rods and clamped them to the existing ones and added more screws and donor bone. This left me with like one disc of movement.. Which was hard, but I learned to adapt. Then, tada!! Right at about 2 years later.. I was finishing up high school/making college plans and I am having severe back troubles again. We find out that the hardware has broken yet again! This time a screw broke and one of the rod extensions slipped out of a clamp.. Well because I have been through so much already the doctors decided it was best to wait until it was bothering me to go in and remove the broken hardware and fix it..
So now, I just turned 27 years old and they still haven't removed it and I'm in chronic pain. The rod has been floating in my lower back against my spine for about 10 years.. And is moving around. They say I also have degenerative disc disease, spondylitis, and bone spur growth in the small area of lumbar region that is not fused. I currently can not sit or stand for more than about 10-15 minutes without being in pain. It is awful, some days it is really bad and I can barely roll over in the bed or walk.. I have been depending on my husband a lot recently.
We are wondering if there have been any law suits for faulty hardware..
We are thinking that I am going to have my 3rd surgery soon.. Shouldn't the company making the faulty hardware have to pay for the damages? I mean, it has greatly effected my quality of life..
When I was in the 6th grade I was diagnosed with mod/severe scoliosis which was caught in the school screening. I had double curves opposite from the usual spines they saw.. Kind of like a question mark. Not too long after going to the orthopedic doctor and getting everything checked out, they tried the "back brace" on me.. Which was torture! During the summer after my 7th grade school year I had my first scoliosis spinal surgery where they fused most of my back (thoracic and some lumbar areas with 2 long metal rods, hooks, screws, donor bone, etc) This was really hard to go through, especially being only 12/13 years old.. But my loving parents made that hard decision after a lot of thought, prayer, research, and questioning the doctors. Right at about 2 years later, I was in a lot of pain and they took me in to see my back doctor. After taking some x-Rays, we found out that a screw broke towards the bottom of the fusion in the lumbar region and was causing the hardware to come undone. At this point I am in my 10th grade school year.. They scheduled my 2nd back surgery in October so I had to be homeschooled pretty much the rest of that year. During this surgery they removed the broken screw and repaired the rod system by extending the fusion down using more vertebrae.. They added two more rods and clamped them to the existing ones and added more screws and donor bone. This left me with like one disc of movement.. Which was hard, but I learned to adapt. Then, tada!! Right at about 2 years later.. I was finishing up high school/making college plans and I am having severe back troubles again. We find out that the hardware has broken yet again! This time a screw broke and one of the rod extensions slipped out of a clamp.. Well because I have been through so much already the doctors decided it was best to wait until it was bothering me to go in and remove the broken hardware and fix it..
So now, I just turned 27 years old and they still haven't removed it and I'm in chronic pain. The rod has been floating in my lower back against my spine for about 10 years.. And is moving around. They say I also have degenerative disc disease, spondylitis, and bone spur growth in the small area of lumbar region that is not fused. I currently can not sit or stand for more than about 10-15 minutes without being in pain. It is awful, some days it is really bad and I can barely roll over in the bed or walk.. I have been depending on my husband a lot recently.
We are wondering if there have been any law suits for faulty hardware..
We are thinking that I am going to have my 3rd surgery soon.. Shouldn't the company making the faulty hardware have to pay for the damages? I mean, it has greatly effected my quality of life..
