Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Oregon

Re: Unsuccessful Surgery...What Now?

First off, was the procedure done by any state agency, such as OHSU? If so, there is a 180-Day "Tort Claim Notice," which means you must give a special form of notice to the government agency within 180 days you reasonably discoverd or should have discovered the negligence. There is also a TWO-YEAR statute of limitations on the claim itself, regardless of who the defendant is.

As to the heart of the matter: You'll need to have a lawyer hire a doctor to review your doctor's chart notes. In order to proceed, you really ought to have a doctor willing to testify that the work your doctor performed fell below the standard of care for similar doctors. Your damages may not be significant, however, since your condition is unchanged. Unless the doc somehow made an error below the standard of care AND it is one which messed up the ability of some other doc to fix it LATER, it sound like a very tough row to hoe for you.

Also, the mere fact that the surgery didn't work doesn't mean that you have a case. Medicine is not an exact science. The failure of the doctor to succeed must be more than mere error: It must be an error that would not happen but for an action (or inaction)which falls below the standard of care for similar doctors. Hope that helps you.