laryngeal nerve injury during surgery

[rtblanchette]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CT
Hello, I am unsure of what to be doing. My husband was a roofing subcontractor until back and neck injuries forced him to stop working. He recently had a cervical fusion surgery to repair a broken vertabrae which took care of much of the pain except now he can only speak in a hoarse whisper and even that voice goes after too much use. He has not been able to solicit new work and frankly I miss having conversations with him. my salary meets our basic bills so we are not starving yet but I am wondering what to do if he never is able to speak enough to be heard?

[ecmst12]

This is a known risk of any surgery on the neck area.

[Gail in Georgia]

Have you requested a consult to a Speech Therapist?

Gail

[lya]

Until he receive an evaluation by his surgeon and/or a speech therapist, he does not need to speak or even whisper. He is aggravating any inflammation that is contributing to the vocal cord/nerve damage.

[rtblanchette]

Thank you, I will take him to a speech therapist and find out what to expect. In the mean time I just missing talking to my husband and am angry that he was not made aware of this potential risk.

[ecmst12]

The risk would have been outlined on the informed consent forms which he signed before the surgery. Read through his paperwork.

[lya]

There are risks associated with anesthesia; one being the risk of vocal cord damage related to the insertion of and physical presence of the endotracheal tube used for breathing the patient during general anesthesia.

If the cervical fusion was of an anterior approach, which I suspect it was, the risks of vocal cord damage are related to those structures being moved away from their normal position and maintained away from their normal position for the duration of the surgery.

As both the general anesthesia and the anterior approach have the known risks of vocal cord damage and such risks are of the higher percentages of occurence, both the anesthesia consent and the surgical consent will list these risks.

Preoperatively, the patient knew the risks. Postoperatively, it is very possible the patient has forgotten that he knew the risks beforehand and consented to the surgery while having this knowledge of risks.

A review of the risks should not be hard to do; the patient should have a copy of the surgical consent. The anesthesia consent may have to be viewed at the hospital or requested from the hospital (or surgical center if the procedure was outpatient).