Legal question,need your input.

[satman]

Hello everybody,I need you educated opinions.
Before I found out I had a 8cm tumor I was starting to lose my hearing.
Keep in mind that I had never heard of A N.
This ent I went to had me do the hearing test in a booth in his office. It was confirmed I could
not hear. He reccomended putting tubes in my ears.
While sitting in his office he did this procedure while I was awake,he used a local anst.
My right ear popped open as I had sinus build-up,My A N side never popped open.
I went through this 3 times and all he could come up with was "John you have nerve damage"
Never did he mention A N, MRI'S OR ANYTHING.
My wife says I should get a lawyer,do I have a case ? YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE.

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Super “8�

Well you did have nerve damage alright – that would be the “acoustic nerve�.

Did your ENT ever have an audiologist do a hearing test on you?
Did you have poor scores on the higher frequencies?
What was the time frequency of the 3 times you went in to the ENT?

I was amazed, as were there neurotologists I consulted, that mine grew to 4cm before I finally got diagnoses (I started seriously seeking kelp for vertigo and tinnitus in 2002 but have been complaining about the tinnitus for years…)

I think many of us were blown away that yours was not diagnosed until 8cm.  Either you are just one tough cookie who keeps ploughing through Texas snow storms without feeling pain and not in tune with your body … or you had one inept ENT. Are you one of those tough guys who simply won’t complain when you feel sick and just toughs it out … the ole “rough and tumbleâ€? attitude  or did you seek help along the 8cm path and were ignored and not taken seriously  ?

Regardless of your answers to these questions… Know that you are still my super hero.

Keep moving forward…

4

[Captain Deb]

Sounds like total neglect to me!  I would certanly set up a consult with a good malpractice lawyer if I were you. I don't have any Idea if neglect constitutes malpractice or not, that's for a lawyer to tell you, but it would be worth your while to find out. If I were in you shoes, I certainly would in a heartbeat, especially since he put you though three medical procedures.
Good Luck,

Capt Deb

[Sam Rush]

AN is so rare that there is always a delay in diagnosis.  You  can't prove that you were harmed by the delay in diagnosis, or that it was not standard practice.  It is frivilous cases like this that drive up the cost of medical care.  What will happen is that the malpractice  #$%^&* lawyer will get rich, and everyone with an ear complaint will have a $2000 MRI scan and ins. premiums will go up.

[er]

this is a quote form;
http://www.irsa.org/acoustic_neuroma.html
 
 between 2500 and 3000 new acoustic neuroma patients are diagnosed in the United States alone every year. And effective, low-risk treatment is available.

for my thoughts 2500 to 3000 is not rare maybe I'm wrong.

eve

[Sam Rush]

3000 out of 170 million is extremely rare.

[Joef]

I was luckly .. I was the second person my GP had seen with AN  so he sent me to an MRI first thing ..(and supected I had a AN, but did not tell me yet, because I had all the classic issues from hearing loss to dizziness) 

I would bet the first patient was not so lucky .. and had several tests and work done ....

[Captain Deb]

I went to my GP with the complaint of a stuffy ear and one of the first things he mentioned when I described the hearing loss as well was a possible AN. I had a diagnosis in 24 hrs. An ENT should have at least explored that possibility. Totally gets my dander up when I hear stuff like this! Sorry!

Capt Deb

[OMG16]

Satman did the ENT do the procedure on 3 different occasions or did he try 3 times that day?  I do not agree with Sam if the tubes did not work he should have investigated further and ordered more tests.

 For you to have a malpractice case you need to prove that the standard of care was out of the normal and that you were harmed by the procedures that were done or suffered due to the delay in diagnosis.  This can be very difficult to prove.

 Some malpractice lawyers are willing to take any case.  I would research to find a good lawyer and talk to them that is the only way to know.

There are usually very strong feelings regarding malpractice and the beliefs that people have.  When people ask about certain doctors on this site sometimes what isn't said is more telling than what is said.  Always check your Doctors out before having any procedure done.  You can do this by going to the Superior Court and having all cases the Doctor has had filed (or hasn't) in the county they practice this can be very expensive but is well worth the money.  You may also need to find out what names they practiced under if they were affliated with a hospital under a fictious name permit.  We learned this the hard way as not everything is on the States Medical Board Licensing site.  This info could be helpful to many future patients.

[ppearl214]

heck, I was complaining of symptoms the dr's thought were brought on by my pancreas issue... and *boom*... my AN and Chiari double-simultaneously diagnosed.  First head MRI I had showed nothing in the reports... go figure?

[Brendalu]

Satman,
You live in Texas, right?  My daughter works for one of the most well known attorneys in the US (think Anna Nicole Smith's mother)  and in Texas, tort reform and all of that has made it very unlikely that you would get very far in a medical lawsuit.  If you can prove negligence on his part (ENT) you might get him to settle for a small amount out of court.  You are back to work (am I correct), you didn't miss a whole lot of work, and you did lose your hearing, but not directly related to what the ENT did or didn't do.  If you had lost your ear or your nose or another body part due to his negligence you might have a case.  I would say he just isn't a very good doctor.  My primary care doc sent me for a head MRI because I fell and there was no reason for it, ie I didn't trip or step in a hole.  Her notes stated look for an AN.  I wish I had better news, but everybody seemed to think lawyers were getting too rich do they took the money out of the pot for real medical lawsuits.
Good luck and if you need a referral for your area and want to pursue a lawsuit I can get you pointed in the right direction.  You would probably have to go at in through the back door.
Good luck

Brenda
another Texas ANer

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

... We are not talking about small tumor here where the patient goes to see their doctor and finally gets into to see an ENT … and the ENT FOLLOWS protocol of the profession and exploring the “1 in a 100,000 chance� after doing a hearing test … to finally find the root cause…

We are talking about a patient that went to an actual "ENT" 3 times and had the wrong treatments done on him. (This is why I ask, �What was the time frequency of the 3 times you went in to the ENT?�) … it was not until it got to 8cm (not mm but CENTIMETERS) and he had major major issues that the ENT got onto this.

Read this
http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=5234.msg47224#msg47224
and
http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=5115.0

Walk the 8 cm path (not mm) here in someone else’s shoes… If this had reached 9 cm we may not have "Satman Super Duper Trooper 8" here today…
to brighten our days.

Unfortunately a malpractice suit can speak volumes. Fortunately someone had the courage to go after the unprofessional conduct of one surgeon I was actually considering for surgery…and I found that recorded through www.healthgrades.com … which saved me (and hopefully other patients) from choosing to work with that doctor ( I already had  major discernment flags up with them manipulating me and not speaking favorably other medical professionals in the field to the patient – which sent me researching). Medical Professional evaluations are actually necessary however; very sadly, some do not become effective- until it gets to the malpractice suit stage. Sadly it is physicians that are inept- that give the other very capable ones a bad name.

The standards will stay high as long as there are checks and balances. What is the best means for that?  Remains to be seen…




4

[ppearl214]

let's keep this respectful, folks.

*sits back with bowl of popcorn and watches thread*

[Sam Rush]

To 4

What are you talking about???   Advising people to file malpractice suits is not good support.!!

I am very supportive of AN people, I have guest speakers for our local group, and talk to people all over the country w/ AN.  I see AN pts for free in my office.

You don't know me, all you can think about is winning a malpracice lottery. You have no idea of the amount of frivilous lawsuits out there, and the stress they can bring, and the cost to all of us in terms of healthcare.

(Sam, certain comments deleted that were not necessary/pertinent to the opening post. Please keep this on-track to original post and take all other comments offline. Thank you for understanding this need for editing. Phyl)

[ppearl214]

Please note that this will be the last time I note the need for respectfulness in recent responses... If this continues, posts will need to be deleted. My suggestion would be to take this kind of conversation off-line in private emails.

Please keep this on track and Satman, please hang in there.
Phyl