Location: Fredericksburg VA
TLDR: I went for emergency services for severe neck pain, the doctor did a CT but no x rays, initially told me it’s all in my head and then went onto to say after I tried to advocate for myself that I have a bulging disc in my neck, which can only be diagnosed with an MRI. I found out later that I had actually broke my back after I got full back and neck X rays. Who would I contact to start filing a medical malpractice suit and what do I need to prepare for my first meeting with a lawyer? Further questions at the end of the post.
Full story: March 2024, I went to an emergency room for ongoing back pain at a local hospital. The pain was following a bad fall where I landed on my neck after getting thrown off my horse that January. It piqued when I was doing a lot of heavy lifting over a 3 day period that March. There was a cyst like bulge on the side of my neck where my neck and shoulder meet. The doctor ordered a CT scan but no x-rays of my neck. I couldn’t rotate my neck whatsoever, I was in an incredible amount of pain. The CT scan showed nothing according to him. He said the bulge/lump/cyst was “insignificant and can’t cause the pain you’re in.” He proceeded to try to tell me it’s all in my head, but I told him that this isn’t normal for me, there is something more going on. I told him about my fall off my horse in detail, to which he just rolled his eyes. I wanted him to investigate the bulge more, but instead he suddenly declared that my pain was due to a “bulging disc in my neck” which I thought was odd, since I thought that a disc issue could only be diagnosed with an MRI. When I questioned it, he yelled at me for questioning him instead of providing a solid explanation for his diagnosis. He sent me home. I can’t remember if he ordered medications for me, but I don’t think he did. I had a follow up at another spine specialist who reviewed my CT scan. She is the one who confirmed that the ER doctor had no authority to tell me I had a bulging disc, and confirmed that I was correct—a bulging disc can only be diagnosed with an MRI. She recommended I get an MRI on my neck. She also noted that the bulge was likely a deep cyst and was likely linked to the pain I was experiencing. The pain lessened over time, and was manageable as long as I didn’t strain my upper back lifting heavy objects. I decided to forgo any further treatment or diagnostics, especially since I had other medical bills piling up.
Fast forward to that fall: I was in physical therapy for a mystery joint issue—after completing that December, I was told that I failed PT and to seek further diagnostics. My physical therapist was convinced it was something in my back. I was able to get in with a doctor that February who did a full set of back x-rays…and I was shocked when I got the results
Two major findings came out of those X-rays, one of which was evidence of an old fracture in my upper thoracic spine, just below where that cyst-like bulge was. My doctor confirmed that yes, that bulge was from agitating the fracture. He said it looked about a year old, and had healed incorrectly, but there is nothing we can do about it now. I have complications to this day from the misdiagnosis.
I don’t have any imaging of my back prior to the incident. I know I have shoulder x-rays from 2022, but nothing that I can remember from 2023. I did not go to the hospital after falling from my horse, but I definitely should have.
My questions from this:
1. Do I have a medical malpractice case?
2. How do I go about filing? Where do I file?
3. What do I need to bring to the filing?
4. What is the likelihood that I will win this kind of case?
5. I have a pre-existing genetic health condition. Would that affect the ruling at all?
Thanks in advance !
Comments
>It piqued when I was doing a lot of heavy lifting over a 3 day period that March.
I’ve seen peaked used for piqued a lot of times. I’ve never seen it wrong in this direction.
What tangible loss did you suffer for the delay in this diagnosis? How much more did you spend on medical care because of it?
You consult a lawyer. Med mal isn’t a case you bring pro se.
Your lawyer will tell you.
We can’t guess. Though see below.
That’s a great question for your lawyer. To some extent your pre-existing condition affects the treatment decisions made by your physician. It may to some extent make your case less likely, but that’s a sweeping generalization that may or may not stand up.
Failure to diagnose is always a difficult case. You know the most about what is going on with you. If you know it is wrong you are generally responsible for seeking additional care – even if that means finding a new physician.
We don’t know (and really you don’t know) if what this physician did was right for the information available to them at the time or wrong.
Just as importantly, to have a case for failure to diagnose you would need to establish that your condition was made worse and made harder to treat because of the delay. If you have a bone that sets wrong and has to be rebroken to fix, that’s a good example. But just “I suffered longer,” is both not a clear tangible loss, and kind of a double edged sword. If you were suffering why didn’t you seek more care?
But there is no reason not to consult a lawyer.
You need to consult with a medical malpractice attorney in your area. Find one that offers free consultations and a contingency fee. It sounds possible that you have a valid case, but the only way to confirm that is to have another doctor review all of your records that are pertinent to this injury (if the attorney thinks you have a valid case, s/he will take care of arranging the physician review).