When surgeons unintentionally operate on the wrong level of the spine, many patients file lawsuits. Lawyers have found that this is the second most common type of medical negligence behind only OB/GYN physicians. Medical malpractice attorneys point to the case of Douglas and Brenda Ray. vs. Mignucci, from 2004 in Texas. That jury awarded the plaintiffs $134,000 when the surgeon operated on the wrong disc.
Ray v. Mignucci- A Common Occurrence
In that case, Doctor Luis Mignucci accidentally removed the T5-T6 thoracic spinal disc instead of the T6-T7 disc. The doctor blamed his mistake on the MRI image which he claimed was unclear, as well as the height of his patient. The patient and his wife filed a lawsuit against the doctor in which they asked for lost wages, medical costs, and non-economic damages such as physical pain, mental anguish, loss of consortium, and loss of household services. Thankfully, the jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded $94,000 to Douglas Ray and $40,000 to his wife, Brenda, for loss of consortium. This field is particularly prone to incidents of medical malpractice and therefore doctors need to be on the look out and attempt to protect their patients against significant injury. Physicians and surgeons should insist on clear imaging before beginning an operation and they should be increasingly careful in counting vertebrae before beginning an operation.
Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If you or a member of your family has recently been the victim of medical negligence, it is possible that you would like to speak with our professional attorneys. Please contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Preston Broussard, on behalf of his late wife, filed the lawsuit against Dubuis Hospital and Dr. Sreedhar Polavarapu. The medical malpractice attorneys stated in the lawsuit that the “defendants’ failure to safely monitor and restrain Dorothy Broussard led to the deprivation of oxygen that caused Mrs. Broussard’s untimely demise.” Obviously the lack of oxygen over a sustained period of time had an adverse effect but no one on the staff recognized the problem in time. The medical lawyers found that the saddest part of this story was how the family discovered the woman. The lawsuit stated,
First, many argue that since insurance companies charge very high premiums for doctors to gain liability insurance, doctors charge their patients more money. Secondly, a doctor’s fear this his or her patients may sue causes them to act in different ways. Many physicians claim that their fear of a lawsuit causes them to order additional tests and procedures (a practice that has since been penned “Defensive Medicine“) just 
Brian Santana was born with no arms and one leg. The parent’s lawsuit claims that Morel and the ultra sound technician should have detected the missing limbs. The medical malpractice attorneys also found that both the doctor and the technician signed a report stating that they had seen all four limbs during the ultrasound. This news led the parents to believe that their child was healthy and would not be suffering from any major birth defects. The plaintiffs argued that because of this negligence, they were not properly informed about their son’s health and had they been, they would have terminated the pregnancy. This failure to properly diagnose the young boy and properly inform the parents of his health is a clear violation of the acceptable standard of medical care. It is the hope of the medical malpractice attorneys that this money will be an appropriate amount to care for the child, who will need considerable medical attention for his entire life.
Christina Mecannic, 40, and Michael Yocabet, 50, have been together for twenty one years and have an eighteen year old son. When Michael was in need of a kidney transplant, it was a no-brainer for Christina to be the donor. Unfortunately, 