Random thoughts random spellings (Reviews of life): I got one... AVM News

Saturday, May 30, 2009

I got one... AVM News

I stumbled across this... thought you mite like it...

Girl Gets Jury Award Of $12.1M For Misdiagnosis

On Feb. 5, 2006, the 8-year-old plaintiff, presented to Salina Regional Health Center with complaints of severe neck pain, arm pain and numbness and tingling in her hands and feet. The nursing staff performed an assessment and presented her complaints to emergency medicine physician Lisa Gard, who was told by the girl’s mother that she had recently been exposed to streptococcal pharyngitis and had a history of recurrent Strep pharyngitis.

Gard did a full examination, including a gross neurological examination, which she claimed was completely normal. Her throat was normal and she had enlarged and tender lymph nodes. The doctor then performed a rapid strep screening test which came back positive, and diagnosed her as suffering from streptococcal pharyngitis. The minor was then discharged home in the care of her parents and given pain medication and antibiotics for treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis.

About 36 hours later, the girl, suffering from progressive weakness and paralysis, was brought back to the emergency room by her father, and then flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where doctors diagnosed a rare congenital defect in her spinal cord called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). It had hemorrhaged and was putting pressure on the child’s spinal cord causing spinal cord compression and edema. The child underwent surgery to remove the AVM; however, by that time her spinal cord had been irreparably damaged due to the 36-hour delay in transferring her. After extensive rehabilitation, she remained an incomplete quadriplegic not requiring ventilator support....