On the 4th of July 2016, our client (whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons) suddenly began feeling numbness and tingling in her toes. The previously healthy mother of two children drove straight to the local hospital to get checked out. Within an hour of walking into the ER, she became suddenly unable to walk. Doctors in the ER suspected that she was suffering from a rare neurological disorder called Guillian Barre Sydrome. It wasn’t until almost 48 hours later that an MRI was performed, showing that a rare type of infection was pressing on her spinal cord. She was helicoptered to Orlando Regional Medical Center for emergency surgery to remove the infection and decompress the spinal cord. But by that time, it was too late. She was paralyzed below the waist. Suddenly facing life in a wheelchair, she had no idea how her family would be able to afford the medical bills that were piling up on the kitchen table.
Paul Knopf Bigger attorneys David Paul and Olivia Kronenberg investigated the care. They found out that even though this hospital heavily advertised MRI services and the availability of specialists throughout the community, MRI services were not available during the hours that our client needed them most. Even though ER doctors requested a consult with a spinal surgeon, the hospital didn’t have one on staff willing to perform emergency surgeries on patients like our client. Mr. Paul and Ms. Kronenberg also consulted with experts from some of the best hospitals in the country to explain why our client should have been diagnosed sooner, and what difference that would have made in her outcome.
The hospital hired experts to defend the care that was provided, and also claimed that earlier diagnosis would not have made any difference. The hospital’s lawyers argued that the doctors who saw our client were not hospital employees, and therefore refused to take responsibility for the care that was provided. Partners David Paul and Brent Bigger successfully defeated that argument at a hearing that would become a turning point in obtaining an eight-figure recovery for this deserving young family.
With the recovery that Paul Knopf Bigger was able to obtain them, our client and her husband will be able to afford all the medical therapies they will ever need. They will be able to build a brand new wheelchair accessible home, and hire household help whenever it’s needed. This family’s future is bright thanks to a team of attorneys at Paul Knopf Bigger who left no stone unturned.
