While at home, the patient falls down a flight of stairs.
His wife immediately calls the EMS for assistance.
Once the EMS arrive they check the patient out and prepare to transport him to the hospital.
As part of the EMS’ procedure for transport, they stabilize the patient with a back board and place a collar around his neck for safety reasons.
Once at the hospital the patient is seen by an emergency room doctor.
This doctor performs an medical treatment evaluation on the patient.
The doctor concludes that the patient is only suffering from an arm injury. This doctor does not order a CT Scan to be done despite the fact the patient’s information indicated that he had fell down a flight of stairs.
An emergency room nurse suggested to the doctor that a CT scan should probably be done just to make sure that no head or neck injuries were present.
The doctor explained to the nurse that the patient was cleared and that he was only suffering from an arm injury.
Hearing this, the nurse became worried and talked with another emergency room doctor about her concerns.
This second doctor did consult with the first doctor and the second doctor was also told that the patient was only suffering from arm injuries.
To “prove” this, the first doctor took the collar off the patient and sat him up.
It was then that the bones in the patient’s neck could be heard breaking.
If you think that your emergency room injury or misdiagnosis is the result of doctors not following good and acceptable methods of care, and your matter happened in Maryland, this is what we invite you to do.
Pick up the phone and give us a call we can be reached at 301-850-4843. We answer questions like yours all the time regarding Maryland medical malpractice law and we would be glad to listen to your story.
