Sommers Schwartz attorneys Richard Groffsky and Jay Yasso filed a neurosurgical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of a patient who suffered extensive damage after undergoing a lumbar decompression and spinal fusion procedure.

According to the allegations, the plaintiff presented to the defendant hospital with chronic intractable lumbar pain that radiated into his legs and subsequently underwent lumbar decompression and fusion at L4-L5 and L5-S1, performed by the defendant neurosurgeon. During operation, the dura was lacerated or punctured, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak was detected, both of which the defendant neurosurgeon claimed to repair.

In the first four days after the procedure, the plaintiff complained of lower extremity weakness and numbness and the inability to have a bowel movement. Despite his complaints, more in-depth examinations were not performed. On the fifth day after surgery, he was returned to the operating room, where a CSF leak and hemorrhage were discovered and evacuated.

The medical malpractice lawsuit asserts that, because of the defendant doctor’s breach of professional negligence, the plaintiff now suffers saddle paralysis, conus medullaris syndrome, cauda equine syndrome, perineal numbness, bowel and bladder dysfunction, weakness in the lower extremities, difficulty ambulating, and sexual dysfunction.