H
havnemu
Guest
State of Virginia.
In 1998 my husband saw his prim. care physician because of complaints of numbness in feet and legs and having the feeling of a tight band around the waist and balance problems. The prim. care dr. ordered an MRI of neck and back. Upon reviewing the MRI pictures, it was established he had a compressed spinal cord in his neck and was referred to neuro surgeon. The symptoms again were explained in detail and NO pain was ever involved. The neuro surgeon took one MRI and said: THIS is the problem. He showed one picture of the spinal cord between vert C6 and C7 and ordered removal of the disc. He said it could take up to a year for the spinal cord to get back to normal, but even if it would not get better, it certainly would not get worse. Surgery was done and in the year after, symptoms were becoming progressively worse. Surgeon said to be patient. Exactly one year after the surgery, my husband was fired from his job (executive chef at large hotel chain) we believe because his balance was worse than ever and he had trouble walking, bending etc. He lost his medical insurance. At that time, he also lost vision in one eye, saw opthalmologists twice, none of which could find anything wrong. His condition still worsened and he only could work part time and was suffering from fatigue all the time. In august of 2000 he filed for SSD, SSI and Medicaid. An independent radiologist read the MRI and noticed plaques (scar tissue) on his spinal cord in back and neck. Upon releasing all the medical reports to SSA he had to see an SSA doctor. That doctor wrote in his report about demylination, loss of fine motor control and the suggestion to be checked for MS. The SSD claim was denied twice. Then a neurologist examined my husband and he ordered a brain MRI plus specific evoked response eye test. The diagnosis was Multiple Sclerosis. Four months after this diagnosis he was put on the drug therapy Avonex (a weekly IM injection) and although slower, he still has progressed where he cannot work at all. He was declared disabled (100%) by his neurologist. In the meantime, a lawyer specialized in SSD cases took over the SSD case and the third step, a hearing before an Administrative law judge was held two days ago. (almost one year after the date of filing the first SSD claim). The lawyer, to make sure he had ALL medical reports, again asked the different doctors for medical reports and one week before the hearing, he received a report from the primary care physician that nobody, including SSA had. It came from the office of the neuro surgeon. In this report, the primary care physician statd that the symptoms he witnessed were typical for Multiple Sclerosis, yet, he did not tell my husband about this and instead sent him to a neuro surgeon for neck surgery.
My question is: is this a case of consealing suspicions of MS and subsequent wrong follow up? My husband had no idea that this is what the prim. care dr. had found and therefore never questioned the neck surgery. Who's at fault here? The neuro surgeon that only looked at the one MRI picture and told us that the compressed spinal cord was the cause of his symptoms and never told us either about the report of the prim. care dr.? And why was this specific report not turned over to SSA when they requested all medical reports?
Early diagnosis and early treatment concerning MS are extremely important and we now have wasted 2 years while my husband progressed so fast that he now is an invalid. Do we have any legal recourse? Especially since this report just came to light within the past 10 days? Due to this report, the lawyer asked the judge to go back one year before the filing date for disability.
Sorry it became long but I could not leave anything out. Thanks! Havnemu
In 1998 my husband saw his prim. care physician because of complaints of numbness in feet and legs and having the feeling of a tight band around the waist and balance problems. The prim. care dr. ordered an MRI of neck and back. Upon reviewing the MRI pictures, it was established he had a compressed spinal cord in his neck and was referred to neuro surgeon. The symptoms again were explained in detail and NO pain was ever involved. The neuro surgeon took one MRI and said: THIS is the problem. He showed one picture of the spinal cord between vert C6 and C7 and ordered removal of the disc. He said it could take up to a year for the spinal cord to get back to normal, but even if it would not get better, it certainly would not get worse. Surgery was done and in the year after, symptoms were becoming progressively worse. Surgeon said to be patient. Exactly one year after the surgery, my husband was fired from his job (executive chef at large hotel chain) we believe because his balance was worse than ever and he had trouble walking, bending etc. He lost his medical insurance. At that time, he also lost vision in one eye, saw opthalmologists twice, none of which could find anything wrong. His condition still worsened and he only could work part time and was suffering from fatigue all the time. In august of 2000 he filed for SSD, SSI and Medicaid. An independent radiologist read the MRI and noticed plaques (scar tissue) on his spinal cord in back and neck. Upon releasing all the medical reports to SSA he had to see an SSA doctor. That doctor wrote in his report about demylination, loss of fine motor control and the suggestion to be checked for MS. The SSD claim was denied twice. Then a neurologist examined my husband and he ordered a brain MRI plus specific evoked response eye test. The diagnosis was Multiple Sclerosis. Four months after this diagnosis he was put on the drug therapy Avonex (a weekly IM injection) and although slower, he still has progressed where he cannot work at all. He was declared disabled (100%) by his neurologist. In the meantime, a lawyer specialized in SSD cases took over the SSD case and the third step, a hearing before an Administrative law judge was held two days ago. (almost one year after the date of filing the first SSD claim). The lawyer, to make sure he had ALL medical reports, again asked the different doctors for medical reports and one week before the hearing, he received a report from the primary care physician that nobody, including SSA had. It came from the office of the neuro surgeon. In this report, the primary care physician statd that the symptoms he witnessed were typical for Multiple Sclerosis, yet, he did not tell my husband about this and instead sent him to a neuro surgeon for neck surgery.
My question is: is this a case of consealing suspicions of MS and subsequent wrong follow up? My husband had no idea that this is what the prim. care dr. had found and therefore never questioned the neck surgery. Who's at fault here? The neuro surgeon that only looked at the one MRI picture and told us that the compressed spinal cord was the cause of his symptoms and never told us either about the report of the prim. care dr.? And why was this specific report not turned over to SSA when they requested all medical reports?
Early diagnosis and early treatment concerning MS are extremely important and we now have wasted 2 years while my husband progressed so fast that he now is an invalid. Do we have any legal recourse? Especially since this report just came to light within the past 10 days? Due to this report, the lawyer asked the judge to go back one year before the filing date for disability.
Sorry it became long but I could not leave anything out. Thanks! Havnemu
