Surgery; Ended up worse. Can I do anything?

[power addict]

New York State;

I'm not sure where to post this, I'm relatively new with this website but this seems most appropriate. The January of last year I had messed up my knee while on the job. Certain ligaments were torn and left my knee swollen to the point of not being able to walk at times. Thankfully Workers Comp covered me and about a month and a half later I had received my surgery. Everything went according to plan, I went to physical therapy iced / heated it when recommended. Everything because I wanted to get back on my feet.

The first month I had thought; Wow it worked and everything's fixed. Low and behold shortly after my knee would ache severely and swell to ridiculous proportions as it once did. I left it as minor complications due to it being so close to surgery date. My doctor said " Within six months you should be able to play tackle football again ". I never followed up on his recreational advice yet within six months my knee began to hurt worse and worse sometimes to the point where I needed painkillers. It kept swelling up every other week or so and would go down within two-three days. I went to see my doctor he prescribed more physical therapy which I was doing phenomenally in. Now i'm looking back a year and change later and it got worse. Worse than ever.

I spoke to a few doctors all of which recommended an MRI of my knee. To come out horrified at the results. I need another surgery and to be off my feet for another 3-4 months or just endure physical therapy and with time its going to get worse and im going to have to do it anyway.

Some of the things that came up in the MRI were:
-Mildly prominent effusion is present
-An oblique tear in posterior horn of the medial meniscus enters the superior margin of this meniscus
-a vertical tear in the posterior horn of the medial meniscus enters the inferior margin of this meniscus

Oh and he went on to say my ACL might be completely done for, Something about the MRI machine not being able to pick up on it.

Sorry for the enormity of this post; but my main question is.. is there anything, I can do ? Say ? Can I sue? Anyone have any advice about how to treat this ? Anyone endure the same thing?

[cbg]

Did any of the doctors say that these things were the result of surgery? Or, alternately, should have been fixed during the surgery?

The only claim I can see that you might have is a med-mal claim, and no one on a message board can say that you definitely do or do not. Surgery does not come with guarantees and bad results do not automatically mean negligence or malpractice.

You may want to speak with an attorney who handles med-mal and see what he thinks. He will have to review ALL of your medical records relating to the accident.

You have no claim against your employer or the workers comp carrier, if that is why you posted in this section.

[You Are Guilty]

I'm confused too. What did your pre-op MRI show?

[commentator]

I'm your little huckleberry when it comes to similar experiences here.

Apparently, knees are very uncertain things once they begin to come to pieces. My surgeon thought he'd done a wonderful job, and I had the great improvement you describe..for about the first month. Apparently, the little suckers tear again and again. I went back complaining, had additional treatment, which helped for a while.

Now, a year later, I'm still having problems with the knee, though the doctor still insists that the surgery went completely as he had planned. He even took pictures of everything he did, partly, as he said, because of the possibility of the surgery not being totally successful in resolving the problem. He didn't give me any promises about resuming my pro-football career. You must be pretty young. I guess he wanted to document that he did a really good job, and that my recent problems were not the result of deficiencies in his surgical skills.

A friend had similar surgery before mine, same doctor, and has never looked back, never had any further problems. But I've heard stories about how many people have experienced the same type problems I've had, with various area doctors.

One thing, I guess you have already signed off and been released by your doctor that you had achieved maximum medical improvement, no more worker's comp, right?

[ecmst12]

Really sounds to me like you re-injured yourself some time after the surgery. Knees are indeed very delicate with lots of little pieces of cartilage which are very easy to tear, especially once they start breaking down.

[power addict]

no he didnt sign off on me yet, and my workers comp is still active on this case, the main concern I have now is whether or not I should allow the same surgeon who might of not had optimal results go back in or should I try to find a different surgeon. Does anybody also think that my "new" injuries could of been caused by they were attempting to fix the initial problem?

[las365]

Here's the deal: because this was a work-related injury, your medical treatment is covered by the comp carrier. As long as the continuing treatment stems from the work-related injury, it should (generally) be covered, and medical coverage for a workers comp injury is (again generally and theoretically) for life. You should check with a workers comp attorney in your area to learn more about the workers comp benefits available to you if you have to be off work for an extended time due to another surgery stemming from the original injury.

Your workers comp carrier would love nothing more than for you to make a claim that your problems are now due to medical malpractice and not to your work-related injury. Tread carefully. Sorry for the pun.

I happen to be at home today with a sore knee in which I got a cortisone shot yesterday! You have all of my sympathy. Best of luck.