Surgical patient says hospital failed to give pathology report to her doctors. $1.7 million before MICRA. Orange County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  Plaintiff had suffered radicular pain in her left leg for more than ten years and underwent a lumbar spine surgery at Chapman Medical Center. After the operation, plaintiff suffered a post-operative infection of her surgical wound and required two more surgeries in the next two months to address the infection.

  During the last operation, a bone specimen from her spine was sent to the pathology department at Chapman Medical Center for analysis. The pathology report indicated that plaintiff had acute osteomyelitis, a very serious infection in her bone. However, Chapman Medical Center failed to communicate the report to the surgeons, in violation of its own policies and procedures. As a result, plaintiff's surgeons and infectious-disease specialists were unaware that plaintiff had infection in her bone and she was taken off of IV antibiotics prematurely and her infection was never eradicated.

  Three months later plaintiff suffered a devastating relapse of her infection and required an emergent neurosurgery on her spine to remove infection from around her spinal cord, major portions of two of her vertebrae, and throughout the muscles and soft tissues of her lower back.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  That Chapman Medical Center was negligent for failing to comply with its own policies and procedures regarding transmission of pathology reports to the operating surgeons. That plaintiff's treating infectious-disease specialists would have extended her IV antibiotics for at least three more weeks had they known she had bone infection and that had plaintiff's infection been appropriately treated, it would have been cured and she would never have suffered the relapse and all of the injuries that resulted from the extensive fourth operation.

  Regarding damages, plaintiff claimed that her injuries included a worsening of her radicular pain in her left leg and that she suffered from significant axial lower back pain and muscle spasms due to the destruction of the structures of her lower back during the fourth surgery, all of which cause her substantial daily pain and suffering.

  She further claimed that due to her worsening physical condition she was placed on disability leave from her position as a classroom nursing teacher in fall of 2014. Finally, she claimed that she will incur substantial medical expenses in the future.

• Defendant's Contentions:

  That the surgeons had access to the report had they chosen to utilize the electronic medical records system at Chapman Medical Center. That plaintiff's treating infectious-disease physicians would have done nothing differently if they had the pathology report and knew of a diagnosis of bone infection because they were treating her presumptively for bone infection anyways. Further, even had plaintiff's IV antibiotics been continued, her infection would not have been cured and she would have suffered the relapse and required the fourth surgery no matter what medical treatment was given at Chapman Medical Center.

  Finally, regarding damages, Chapman Medical Center argued that plaintiff's back pain and leg pain was pre-existing and as a result of a vascular condition and not nerve related.