Miami Missed Diagnosis of Spinal Infection Attorney
Helping Florida’s Victims of Missed Diagnoses of Spinal Infections
Doctors and other health care providers often miss diagnosing a spinal infection, treating patients’ main symptom – back pain – and not ordering appropriate diagnostic lab tests and radiologic imaging. Unfortunately for these patients, untreated spinal infections can lead to very serious consequences, including severe pain and permanent neurological injuries.
If you or a family member has sought care and suffered because a spinal infection was not diagnosed, you may be the victim of medical negligence. You could be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, pain, suffering, and other damages recoverable under Florida law. An experienced Miami medical malpractice attorney from Boyers Law Group can help you determine your best course of action to obtain the substantial compensation you deserve and hold the responsible parties accountable for negligence.
Diagnosing a Spinal Infection
When patients have fevers in conjunction with severe pain and tenderness in a specific part of their spine, doctors should consider the possibility of spinal infection and order lab work and radiologic imaging to make an accurate diagnosis. Sometimes, the signs and symptoms of spinal infection can be more subtle and may not even result in a fever. It is essential that doctors consider a patient’s risk factors for spinal infection, including, among others, age, diabetes or a recent history of a urinary infection. Other symptoms, such as weaknesses in a patient’s legs, inability to feel or control urination, and pain in the chest, neck or abdomen could also indicate a serious spinal infection that could be diagnosed with the proper laboratory tests, including a CBC as well as blood and urine cultures, and radiologic imaging such as a CT or MRI.
Doctors sometimes misdiagnose a spinal infection as a mere orthopedic problem. They, accordingly, never order proper lab studies and only order x-rays, resulting in a dangerous failure to diagnose their patient’s spinal infection. Unfortunately, this missed diagnosis or delayed diagnosis of a spinal infection could mean the difference between recovery and a permanent debilitating injury.
Treating a Spinal Infection
If diagnosed early, spinal infections can usually be treated effectively with antibiotics. If the infection results in a spinal epidural abscess (collection of pus around the spinal cord) and discitis (infection of the intervertebral discs with associated inflammation), emergency surgery to decompress the spinal cord may be critical. If a spinal infection is not diagnosed, spinal cord compression that is not quickly relieved can lead to paralysis. Furthermore, the infection can invade the bone, causing a condition known as osteomyelitis that can eat away at formerly healthy bone and cause permanent damage and disability. In this way, a once healthy, lively individual can end up dependent upon care givers and assistive devices for the rest of their lives all because their infection wasn’t timely diagnosed and properly treated.
Florida Medical Malpractice Lawsuits for Missed Diagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis of Spinal Infections
If you or a family member has suffered because a spinal infection was not diagnosed, you may be able to hold the doctor accountable for negligence with a medical malpractice lawsuit. In Florida, medical malpractice is defined as the failure of a health care provider to act in accordance with the accepted professional standard of care owed to patients. When a doctor, nurse or other healthcare provider is negligent and fails to act as a reasonably prudent medical provider of the same specialty would act and causes a patient to suffer serious injury or wrongful death, the doctor, nurse or hospital may be held responsible for inflicting harm on his or her patients.
Victims of medical malpractice may be entitled to obtain substantial financial compensation for their medical and care expenses, lost income, decreased or lost earning capacity, diminished capacity to enjoy their lives, together with pain and suffering, as well as other damages recoverable under Florida law. An experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney can help victims understand their rights and obtain the compensation they deserve.
Boyers Law Group Attorneys Are Committed to Helping Florida Medical Malpractice Victims
At Boyers Law Group, we believe that negligent doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers should be held accountable for the harm they cause patients and their families. We have successfully prosecuted many delayed or missed diagnosis cases and have helped our clients obtain millions of dollars in compensation for their injuries.
If you or a family member has suffered because a spinal infection was not diagnosed, a skilled medical malpractice attorney from Boyers Law Group can help you hold the negligent physician accountable and obtain the substantial compensation you deserve. We have years of successful experience in representing clients in medical malpractice cases and are committed to putting our experience, knowledge, skill and resource to work for you.
We are deeply committed to helping our clients because we know that if you come to us for help, you have suffered a terrible loss and deserve answers and all the compensation the law will allow. Please call us at 800.545.9100 or submit the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website to get expert advice from an experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney.
Helpful Resources:
McDonald, M., & Peel, T. (2019, July 7). Vertebral osteomyelitis and discitis in adults. In E. Baron (Ed.), UpToDate.
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/vertebral-osteomyelitis-and-discitis-in-adults
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. (n.d.). Neurointerventional radiology.
https://www.medstargeorgetown.org/our-services/radiology/neurointerventional-radiology/conditions/spinal-infections/
Quah, C.S., & Bilous, R. (2006, Nov./Dec.) Spinal abscess: beware diagnostic delays. Multiple spinal epidural abscesses, pp. 385–388.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pdi.1017