Sommers Schwartz attorney Matthew Turner filed a medical malpractice action against a neurosurgeon for his alleged failure to timely diagnose and treat a postoperative hematoma and seroma.

According to the complaint, the defendant saw the plaintiff in the emergency room on January 17, 2017, one month after surgery on her lower back.  At that time, the plaintiff’s clinical presentation, including difficulty urinating and CT findings of a large fluid collection in the lumbar spine, suggested compression arising after the recent surgery. The fluid continued to exert compression on the surrounding nerves until January 25, 2017, at which time the hematoma and seroma were surgically evacuated.

The lawsuit claims that had the defendant neurosurgeon adhered to the standard of care, he would have immediately returned the plaintiff to the operating room or ordered an MRI on January 17, 2017, either of which would have quickly prompted evacuation of the hematoma and seroma and relieved the nerve root compression. Instead, the defendant allowed the condition to go untreated and worsen for another eight days, resulting in permanent nerve damage, continued pain, and neurological injury.