Question Dear Mr. Schroder, I wrote to you back in May 0f 06, regarding My malpractice suit for peroneal nerve damage & RSD r/t a right total hip replacement. Well I took your advice and obtained a new attorney. However, I recently spoke with an orthopedist who also is used as an expert witness in medical malpractice suits. He told me that peroneal nerve damage is a known complication of hip surgery due to the nerve being a branch of the sciatic nerve. So if you were informed of surgical complications related to the sciatic nerve you do not have any negligence on the surgeons part? I am confused now, more than ever! Do I have a medical malpractice suit, since I have permanent peroneal nerve damage with RSD, and this effects every aspect of my life? Do the risk of damage to the sciatic nerve that are divulged to you, prior to surgery, pertain to peroneal nerve as well? I have been unable to work for 2 years now, since I am a nurse and need my Two legs to work. who is liable for this horrific tragedy that has drastically changed my life? Thank you for your expertise.
Sincerely. Dina Morrison
Answer The orthopedist you spoke to was using 'informed consent' to explain that if you gave the doctor consent to do the surgery when you knew the peroneal nerve could be injured, it's your fault.
That is a typical defense lawyer approach. You did not give that surgeon the right to injure your peroneal nerve, you merely said you understood it might happen.
The surgeon did know that peroneal nerve injury is a common injury, well known in hip surgery. Well, doctor dear, if the injury is well known, then the aversion techniques necessary to protect that nerve are now also well known. The peroneal nerve is one of many nerves in the large bundle called the sciatic nerve. No doubt the surgeon injured the peroneal and maybe other nerves in the sciatic nerve too. His responsibility to you as his patient is to protect you, not just part of, but all of you. It's in his Hippocratic oath, 'to do no harm'. But he did. Now why did he nick that nerve? Several reasons can be guessed.
First, he had a bad day. I am serious when I say this. He should not have operated because he was not at his best. Maybe he slept poorly. Maybe he had a fight with his wife. Maybe his stock porfolio was in trouble. Doctors do have bad days. Maybe he is going through a lousy divorce.
Second, the surgical site was bloody. Maybe you bled more than his usual patient. He couldn't identify the sciatic nerve and so he cut it.
Third, maybe the devices used did not fit. The plastic ball for the trochanter was the wrong size, or some one did not bring the right tools to surgery. You can imagine all kinds of things going wrong during surgery, but in his operative report he should have noted the sciatic nerve, and the other organs that might be injured, if he did not see them. His operative report should have said clearly that he SAW the sciatic and took steps to remove it from the operative site, or in some way, perhaps with sponges and a retractor, protected it from the tools of surgery.
If any of these things, or try to guess why he did not protect that nerve that is BIG, happened, then he did not do what he was supposed to do. Your consent did not give him the right to injure you, only that you understood things might be beyond his control But he was or should have been in control. Hip replacement surgery is about as common these days as hysterectomies and he is an expert.
Now, your lawyer has to put all these arguments to work when he examines that doctor. If he does not do a background on that doctor prior to his deposition of that doctor, he is not doing his job. The lawyer has to find and develop the reason for your injury. Let him worry about that.
