QUESTION
No longer able to lift heavy items for the rest of my life!
Asked on Oct 19th, 2014 on Medical Malpractice - North Carolina
More details to this question:
Hurt my shoulders at work. Employer sent me to Their Dr.. Their Dr diagnosed it as a sprained bicep. No X-ray or MRI was done at the time. 1 month of Physical Therapy 3x/wk was done. After said month I was still suffering but was released back to full duty at work. I asked Dr about the X-ray and Dr just said if I was still in pain to take some ibuprofen. Less than 1 year later I reopened case due to to much pain. At that time same Dr asked if they never did an X-ray or MRI. I told them " no, not even after I asked you about it". Dr. Stated " ok , don't worry, don't worry, we'll take care of that now." . MRI showed 2 broken tendons in addition to some fractures. Dr. Then sent me to shoulder surgeon which said the Tendon injuries show to be from original incident. When operation was completed, Surgeon said he could not fix 1 of the tendons due to age of injury even after attempting multiple times. Therefore I would not be able to lift anything heavy for the rest of my life. P.S. I'm 38
1 ANSWER
You may have a medical malpractice claim in addition to a workers compensation claim. Regardless of whether the doctor was retained by the employer, he had a physician-patient relationship with you and was obligated to perform a complete and thorough evaluation consistent with the standard of care. The standard of care is what other similar doctors would have done under similar circumstances. Have you resolved your workers compensation claim? There are a lot of issues that need to be considered before you should close the workers comp claim. It is important to determine how you injury will effect your wage earning ability throughout your life.
John C. Hensley, Jr.
828-225-3737
Answered on Oct 20th, 2014 at 2:34 PM