On May 27, 2018, the decedent, age 50, presented to a Chicago hospital with some mild neurological symptoms. A CT scan was done on the morning of May 27, 2018. The reported findings on the CT scan were a facet fracture at the C6-7 region of his cervical spine. There was no report of any disk abnormality at C6-7. An operation was performed to fix the fracture on May 28, 2020. After the surgery, the patient woke up with severe neurologic comprise in all extremities. A subsequent MRI was performed which revealed a large paracentral/right disk herniation at C 6-7 effacing the epidural space. The C6-7 disk was abnormal on both the pre-operative CT and MRI. While the facet fracture was reported, the CT scan shows a significant disk abnormality at C 6-7. He died after a year from complications of his incomplete quadriplegia. Plaintiff’s theory was the radiologists and the neurosurgeons missed a herniated disk on both the MRI and CT scans. Had they had recognized the herniated disc at C6-7, the surgery would have be performed by a different approach and the quadriparesis would not have occurred.
Bradley Z. Schulman and Robert J. Napleton represented the family.