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.