DEFENSE VERDICT – POST-OP EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

Jonathan Kieffer and Brandon Henry successfully defended a local orthopedic surgeon in a six-day Johnson County, Kansas, jury trial in which the plaintiff asserted a claim of medical negligence and sought $2.8 million in damages relating to permanent paralysis in his lower extremities.

The plaintiff claimed that our client failed to timely diagnose and evacuate an epidural hematoma that developed five days after our client performed a lumbar laminectomy (decompressive spine surgery). The plaintiff also asserted that our client negligently ordered anti-coagulant medications that allegedly increased the size of the post-operative hematoma so that it compressed upon the plaintiff’s spinal cord.

Our trial attorneys argued that there was inadequate support, both clinically and radiographically, for the diagnosis of a compressive epidural hematoma and that the standard of care did not require our client to return the plaintiff to the operating room for surgery. We further argued that the decision was made even more difficult because this patient had experienced an episode of TIA (mini-stroke) and been diagnosed with a DVT (blood clot) in his lower extremity earlier during the post-operative period, which caused the risks of surgery to substantially outweigh the potential benefits.