malpractice and maybe ghost surgery

[Melissa_12]

in feb of 99 i had hardware put in my hip and leg because of a fracture. on my follow up visits i kept complaining of pain. my doctor gave me pain pills and sent me on my way. the last time i went to him in march of 2000 i told him i was still in alot of pain and felt like i could feel something wrong with the hardware. he sent me on my way again and told me to come back in 1 year. i went to a another doctor who sent me to a pain clinic. both doctors took x-rays and they showed nothing. i stayed in chronic pain. feb of 2001 i had to have emergency surgery because the hardware had infected my leg. the 2nd doctor did the surgery. i was in the hospital for 11 days and had to come home with an iv in my chest for six weeks. the hardware had corroded. i have the hardware. i have all of my medical records from all of my doctors. my first doctor wrote in his notes from my last visit that he felt i was much to heavy to feel the hardware in my leg when i told him i felt that something was wrong. i researched the hardware he used. i read it was used for temporary fixes for fractures because it can corrode. he put the hardware in me for life.
i am almost certain he did not even do teh surgery on me. i believe it was one of his interns. i am still having chronic health problems due to the damage the hardware has caused. do i have a malpractice case? i live in virginia.

 

[pele]

Boy, a simple blood test would have shown if you had an infection or not. You seem to have done a lot of research on this. I work for an orthopedic surgeon, I have never heard of corroding hardware. I would get an attorney.

 

[pele]

I checked with my boss today, it does happen, if the hardware has a scratch. He says it does not happen with the newer hardware. You also might check one other thing out, are you allergic to nickel? I am, and I never thought about it regarding orthopedic surgery until we had a couple of patients that were allergic to nickel and we had to find a manufacturer who did not use a lot of nickel in their hardware before these patients had surgery. Best of luck to you.

 

[mary ray]

I would certainly see an attorney who specializes in medical malpractice. At least in my neck of the woods medical malpractice claims are becoming less popluar unless it's a slam dunk.It seems that the doc's ins.co's are "going to the mat" and are no longer inclined to settle unless it is egregious I also know that interns and 1st yr residents do a lot of the surgery, and the primary signs off on it. Actually this is fairly common in large teaching hospitals. I certainly would want you to talk to an atty.