$5.7 Million
Our client, Kimberly (name changed to protect client), age 57, was a longtime patient at West
Side VA Hospital and Hines VA Hospital. Approximately two years prior to the negligence,
Kimberly was diagnosed with cervical myelopathy, a condition of extreme pressure on her spine.
Due to her immobility, she was not able to move her legs or arm and was forced to move to a
nursing home for 24-hour care. Kimberly underwent necessary therapy and recovered almost
completely. A few months prior to becoming immobile, Kimberly paid a visit to her general doctor.
He noticed a change and diagnosed hyper-reflexia and clonus in both of her legs.
(If you have clonus, your foot keeps on jerking after a strike of the doctor’s hammer,
which usually implies injury to the spinal cord or brain.) Unfortunately, Kimberly was
never referred to a specialist. Six months later, Kimberly found herself at the emergency
room of West Side VA. She fell down the stairs due to a weak grip and an unsteady walk.
A neurologist, ordered an MRI for Kimberly’s neck. However, the neurologist never
reviewed the MRI results and thus Kimberly was not evaluated as a surgical candidate.
At court, an expert testified on Kimberly’s behalf that surgery, if provided,
would have had a 70-80% chance of halting the progression of the disease.
It was successfully proven that West Side VA Hospital doctors were negligent, and the judge