Did you have an unnecessary Spine Surgery?

November 30, 2018

If a patient feels their Spine Surgery didn’t work as indicated or felt they were misled, their are options available.

 

1. The first thing is to find a competent Orthopedic Spine Surgeon, not a Neurosurgeon.  Preferably find a surgeon who is not employed by a hospital or large group.  Why?  Private Practice and Independent Spine Surgeons must maintain the integrity of their practice.  They also need patients to come back and a trust must be established between the patient and the doctor.  Private Practice and Independent Doctors rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth.  I have patients come to my office from around the state, they visit my website and want a valuable second opinion.
2. Get all the medical records from the surgeon who performed the procedure including the clinical findings (the 5,6, or 7 visits before where they clearly documented the reason to perform the surgery or not.) . How thorough were these examinations.
3. You should get the MRI’s or XRays, whatever imaging was performed before and after the surgery.
4. You should be aware, if things have gone very poorly, there is a statute of limitations of 2 years from the time you are fully aware of the damages that were done.
5. Many times Physical Therapy is neglected on a lower back or cervical spine case for whatever the reason, or worse it is not done appropriately because many times the Physical Therapy facility doesn’t specialize in Spine or they work for a Hospital.  Their are certain things the surgeon can recommend to make sure the Physical Therapy works or not.

Once all of these steps are taken, it’s very important to find someone to assess this information.

Just because you perform a surgery it doesn’t legitimize the diagnosis!