Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Maryland

An oncologist referred me to have a surgical biopsy to rule out lymphoma - I saw an ENT doctor that did the one hour surgery. I wasn't diagnosed with cancer. I was told to leave the surgical bandage on for 10 days and fill my pain meds. I tried only OTC meds for the first 4 days because I didn't want to use the pain meds - after 4 days the pain was much worse. I called my doctor to inform him of this and he said it was ok because "you just had surgery". Two days after that a stinking fluid and blood was running out of the bandage, soaking my shirt. I called the doctor and his collegue was on-call and said he didn't do the surgery (it was a Friday night) and he can't advise me, "but if you feel you need to go to the ER, by all means go". I went to the ER on Saturday morning and the doctor there informed me that the wound "is badly infected and the "stitches need to come out immediately". He removed the surgical bandage and my hair was all stuck inside of it with yellow pus intertwined - I asked the ER doctor if that was the possible cause of the infection and he did not answer - he said nothing. I asked again, again silence. I told him I had an appointment to see the surgeon Monday morning and asked if it could wait and he said "no, they have to come out today, but I will be calling your surgeon to speak with him first". I couldn't get hold of my doctor after the surgery when I needed him to ask about things (when I did, it took 4 pages and his office had to intervene to get him to call me finally about the trouble with my wound) - so I told the ER doctor he would most likely not call, could he just take them out and I go home? He said he would call the doctor and that the "doctor will call us back, we're the hospital". I waited,the ER put me on antibiotics before I left with a prescription to get a bottle. The ER doctor did not say he spoke to my doctor at all - he just said to see him my doctor for the Monday to get the stitches out. When I saw my doctor Monday the nurse taking my info said someone other than my doctor would be removing the stitches - I wanted to see him to discuss the infection, telling her my neck was infected (and I was worried because more time had passed since the Saturday morning ER visit where they said they needed to be removed "immediately" and then, after waiting for my surgeon to confer with them, sent me home with no explanation other than they weren't able to talk to him). My doctor's assistant said, "What makes you think it's infected?" I told her because I'd been to the ER Friday, and wasn't that in the chart, because ER called my doctor". She looked and said no, then took the chart away - then my doctor saw me. When I told him, he said, "I know, I got a message from Dr. so-and-so at the ER"...but he didn't say that he spoke to him......and didn't say anything other than to take several samples out of the wound with a needle and then he proceeded to remove the imbedded stitches. He commented several times when trying to get the imbedded stitches out and after removing the fluid for the test that "I can't understand why this happened - I washed the wound" - and I forgot to mention to him that hair was imbedded (lots) in the bandage in the yellow pus when the ER removed it. He told me, several times, "This is very rare, this barely ever happens - but you'll be fine". He sent me home, with a follow-up appointment, telling me to finish out the antibiotics the hospital gave me, then see him for the follow-up. I went back to him for a follow-up visit after finishing out the antibiotics the hospital gave me. On the follow-up visit (after my antibiotics were finished) I asked the adminstrative desk and assistants (several) while waiting for the doctor for a copy of the report of what my test results showed when he removed the several samples of liquid from my wound. They acted very confused, looking through my file, saying they didn't see any tests done and that there were no results that they could find for me - that I needed to ask the doctor. I asked him and he only said (I had no report given to me) "Nothing grew, you're fine. You don't have cancer (yes, the biospy established that, we were discussing the infection) so you should be happy - don't worry, you're fine - just as a precaution, I'm giving you one more round of the antibiotics, just to be on the safe side."

Due to many other factors not relevant and factors that upset me from the get-go with this doctor and my possible cancer (long story) I decided I'd had enough. I DID fill the antibiotics to take as he recommended and did NOT keep the follow-up appointment - instead, going to my internist to let me know if I were ok - because I had a gut feeling about the doctor and simply did not trust him. My internist asked where the test for the infection was performed - I told him - and he got the report immediately, telling me I had a staph infection. I finished the antibiotics, my internist then re-tested and was told the staph had cleared up. My internist refused to comment on the situation where my surgeon withheld the information from me - essentially, I never saw the surgeon again and for all he knows I didn't take the antibiotics "just to be on the safe side" - he's never contacted me again. After the surgery, I had a lot of pain in my neck, which my internist monitored telling me "I need to clean up all thils mess with this surgery" - I began having a lot of pain on that side of my neck and the other side of my neck and shoulder as well - excruciating pain at times - something I'd never had there before, and naturally, I asked if it were due to the surgery - it only seemed to make logical sense - my internist would not comment, but sent me for a bone scan telling me he was looking for cancer of the bone or to see if the "staph had settled". When I asked if the staph did do that, what would that mean and he said it would mean a protracted rounds of heavy duty antibiotics..." The bone scan showed that I was ok - but the pain my neck and shoulders (only since the surgery) has not subsided and it is so bad that yestserday I could not lift my arms over my head (or even get them up enough) to remove my shirt. My internist has diagnosed me with "impingement syndrome" (again, not saying the surgery caused it, only saying it can get bad enough that you can't lift at all) and told me to get yet another test done and to see an orthopedic to see if I might need steroids, therapy and telling me I may need future surgery.

As a side problem, my employer layed me off from my job telling me after 5 months of a lot of compliments about my work performance that all of a sudden after they knew I was going for tests due to the lumps in my neck and some of the other workers there telling the employer they were sure it was lymphoma - I was told that they were letting me go and that it "was not a good fit, not a good match" with no further explanation. I am struggling to pay my insurance to finish up this nightmare, I have thousands of dollars in medical bills and now I have this problem and in extreme pain.

Did anything the surgeon do, or didn't do, or the fact that he withheld information about my test results of staph, sending me out with only telling me to take the antibiotics "to be on the safe side" knowing it was staph, and not telling me so - for that matter, teh hospital never told me it was staph either - only that it was infected - they never gave me a report either - but they did take a wound sample. My biggest present concern is that this "impingement syndrome" which was never present at all, but has progressed, quickly since the surgery done on October 7th to the point of not being able to lift my arms to remove clothing is now causing me an entirely different, and expensive and possibly long-term problem that will at least involve steroids, therapy and possible surgery - did the surgeon have any responsibility for this? If he can lie to me about having staph and tried to cover it up and blow it off as he did, I can only feel he isn't as conscientous in other areas of his care - and now I have lots of treatment on the horizon for this newly diagnosed (today) condition - impingement syndrome.

Please advise - it is deeply appreciated.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Medical Malpractice Law questions and answers in Maryland

Looking for something else?