Surgical Malpractice Attorneys New York City

Patients Sue Back Surgery Company Laser Spine

When Bonnie Balch's online search for a back surgeon led her to the Laser Spine Institute, it was no accident. The day surgery company has become a master of grabbing patients' eyes on the Web, using search optimization consultants and a strategy that often gains the company top billing in Google ( GOOG ) listings at a cost that rivals estimate at a minimum of $100,000 a month. Balch, however, wishes her surfing had taken her elsewhere. Her October 2008 surgery at Laser Spine's Tampa clinic left her incontinent, with a dangerous spinal fluid leak. Still in pain after care costing $90,176 at Laser Spine, she needed a second surgery elsewhere to get relief. "They are in it to make money," says Balch, 63, a Longmont (Colo.) flight attendant who is suing Laser Spine for malpractice in Florida.

Laser Spine is part of a boom in ambulatory care centers with physicians in residence as owner-practitioners. There are 5,000-plus such centers in the U.S., 90 percent with doctors as investors. Back surgery is a prominent part of the trend.

Tampa-based Laser Spine and rivals in California, Texas, and New York promise no overnight stays and quick pain relief. Laser Spine's surgical technique uses lasers to burn off, or ablate, sensitive nerve endings followed by a disc "decompression" that removes material or bone that presses on nerves.

Laser Spine routinely charges patients $30,000 for its procedure, more than double the typical price for a decompression elsewhere. Balch and other patients have brought 15 malpractice lawsuits since October 2009, a period in which the company performed about 7,500 procedures based on its 2010 estimates. Nationally, outpatient surgery centers received about six malpractice claims for every 20,000 surgeries, according to insurer Zurich North America. Aetna ( AET ) won't cover operations at Laser Spine, citing a lack of research confirming safety and efficacy. Cigna ( CI ) won't pay for the laser part of surgeries done there. Laser Spine says UnitedHealthcare ( UNH ) covers its procedure.

Nine surgeons told the company is doing surgery that is often unnecessary or inappropriate. The evidence that ablation helps patients is "pretty weak," says Dr. Roger Chou, a physician at the Oregon Health & Science University and director of the American Pain Society's clinical guidelines program. "Even in studies showing some benefit, the benefit is small and doesn't last," Chou says.

Officials at Laser Spine, which also operates centers in Scottsdale, Ariz., Philadelphia, and Oklahoma City, say in-house surveys show positive outcomes for more than 87 percent of patients. "We know it works," says Dotty J. Bollinger, Laser Spine's chief medical operations officer. "We see it every day." The company declined to comment on all pending patient lawsuits.

New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Questions Doctor Who Operated ...

    NEW YORK, NY, May 08, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — Recently, a surgeon operated on the wrong eye of a 4-year-old boy and he may have suffered permanent eye damage in what was supposed to be a simple procedure. Apparently, before the surgery, a nurse mistakenly covered the doctor’s mark which indicated the eye needing correction.

How did the doctor explain herself? She says she simply “lost sense of direction and didn’t realize I had operated on the wrong eye until I was done operating on the eye.”

New York medical malpractice lawyer David Perecman believes this answer is not sufficient.

“Dr. Shawn Goodman needs to explain why she continued the surgery if she was not certain what eye to perform surgery on,” said Perecman, founder of the New York medical malpractice law firm, The Perecman Firm .

When the surgeon realized her mistake, she then operated on the correct eye –without his parents’ consent. “Another significant error,” said New York medical malpractice lawyer Perecman.

According to the boy’s mother, Tasha Gaul, a nurse came out during the surgery and said “we’re operating on both eyes.” She then said that before she or the boy’s father had a chance to react, the nurse had vanished.

The four-year-old had been seeing Goodman every six months since his parents discovered his eye wandered.

“Operations on the wrong site or the wrong patient should never happen, but too often they do,” said New York medical malpractice lawyer Perecman. “Unfortunately, Jesse was the victim of a wrong site surgery and the long term effects are unknown at this time.”

What is known is that since the wrong site operation , Gaul has not seen any improvement in the right eye and now the boy’s left eye appears to be wandering. He also has red marks in the whites of his eyes and has to put drops in three times a day.

According to New York medical malpractice lawyer Perecman, it is not only the doctor who is responsible for ensuring that surgery is performed on the correct body part. Nursing staff and other medical staff can be held liable for these medical mistakes, as well. Wrong site surgery is such a serious medical mistake that the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a 19-item surgical safety checklist recommended for use in every operating room for every procedure. Medical malpractice can include any error relating to surgery. New York medical malpractice lawyer Perecman believes there is little doubt as to the negligence of the medical professional when surgery performed on the wrong body part. This would include surgery on the wrong eye, arm, knee or other body part.

Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, District of Columbia, U.S. Government Lawyers, State Bar Association Profiles, Law Schools

New York Magazine

Jet

Markham's negligence counsel

New York State journal of medicine