Gerry Oginski
NY Medical Malpractice Lawyer
www.oginski-law.com or call Gerry at 516-487-8207
Welcome and thank you for joining me. I am Gerry Oginski. A New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer practicing law here in the State of New York. Today’s topic is about orthopedic injuries. Today’s video tip is about a young man who broke his arm while working in a brick yard. He went to a local emergency room which was a municipal hospital and he was X-rayed and told by the doctor there that he had a broken bone in his arm and that he needed to have it set. The doctor set the bone, put a cast on his arm and told him to follow up in the orthopedic clinic over the next few days and few weeks so that they can monitor his progress and my client went back repeatedly, overtime, to make sure that he was progressing well. Each time he went back, he was told that the bone is healing well.
Well, after about six weeks, he had the cast removed and when it was removed, he saw his arm look like a roller coaster, it was flat, it went up and then it went down again and remained flat and he told the doctor, he took of the cast, he said, “Look, something does not look right here. I think something is wrong.” The doctor told him, “Do not worry, with physical therapy it will go away.”
Now, my client was not educated man but he knew enough to know that there was a problem. So, he went up making an appointment to get a second opinion with another orthopedist. The orthopedist examined him and took X-rays and told him that the bone healed incorrectly and as a result of that, he is now going to need surgery to break the bone, it is called an osteotomy, and he is going to have to connect the bone together using hardware; using plates, screws and pins to hold the bone together. He was also told by this orthopedist that if his arm had been correctly set in the emergency room, that it would have been no need to have it re-broken during surgery, no need for additional recuperation time, no need for the hardware and the pins and the screws that he is now going to have to live with.
Once the case got underway, I had the chance to question the doctor from the emergency room who actually set this young man’s arm. It turned out that this individual was not a doctor at all but rather was a physician’s assistant. He was supposed to be working under the supervision of an attending doctor, either an orthopedist or an emergency room doctor. The sad part about this is that he never consulted with the emergency room doctor or the orthopedist about this particular fracture. As a direct result of this doctor’s inexperience and inability to correctly set this young man’s fracture, I was able to successfully resolve this young man’s case right before trial and that is it for today’s video tip. I want to thank you for joining me. I am Gerry Oginski. Have a great day!
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services