When a person has knee pain, he or she will sometimes do whatever it takes to get rid of that pain. Surgery is sometimes the necessary step to get the pain to go away. For one Kentucky woman, a knee replacement surgery ended up being the start of a nightmare.
The woman had surgery to replace her knee in January of 2009. The woman developed an infection in the right knee, which was the knee she had replaced. Instead of removing the replacement, the doctor opted to leave the replacement in. He tried two different procedures to get rid of the infection, but those didn’t work.
She ended up becoming septic because of the infection. Her kidney function was negatively impacted because of this. She still has to have dialysis because of how the infection harmed her kidneys.
The woman had to have her knee replacement removed. Her leg has been fused together. She now doesn’t have a knee at all in her right leg.
A Greenup Circuit Court jury found in favor of the woman with a 10 to 2 vote. They awarded her a total of $6 million. Of that, $5 million is for pain and suffering. The remaining $1 million is for past medical bills.
Anyone who has been the subject of a surgical error like this has the right to seek compensation as this woman did. Any compensation that is awarded might help to minimize the effect that the error has on your finances because continuing care for the injuries the error cause can be very costly.
Source: The Independent Online, “Greenup jury returns $6M malpractice verdict” Kenneth Hart, Jun. 12, 2014
