[Maria]

I worked with doctors/surgeons my whole career. One thing I learned was that when they know they've done something wrong or they think that a patient is considering litigation they make sure they have consulted their own attorney as well as the hospital umbrella type of coverage. In fact it's brought up at meetings in teaching institutions and talked about and so forth. Was the outcome preventable.. etc. what could have been done differently, what was done correctly. Very educational for students though have mostly seen that most doctors/surgeons band together in protecting one another when it comes to admitting anything outside this type of educational realm. Not always though it's more the norm.

Realize however I haven't worked for nearly 11 years so what I'm saying is about a 25 year career that ended because of my own back plight however I have felt that sort of attitude myself as a patient with a failed back surgery (like my complaints were unfounded or that of a crazy person and I did sign the surgical consent and risks were explained to me prior to surgery and so forth tho in reality not in depth by any means with regard to the 2nd spine surgery I had and it was right before I was being taken into the OR).

Undoubtedly your surgeon not only didn't like hearing negative consequences he was probably advised not to say anything that might in any way be damaging so just say nothing. That's a pretty common stance for someone to take and in fact it's pretty normal once someone has been around for while practicing in medicine and/or in life in general. The more one speaks the more one is likely to trip him/herself up so either just answer the question with yes or no or don't add anything.

Also it's a very common thing to document that the patient is very upset, unhappy, displeased, came to the office stating xyz and because it can be construed as the patient has some post surgical mental type of situation going on being severely displeased w/outcome even though a consent for surgery was signed by the patient .. yadda yadda and also make it appear that the patient may be threatening the doctor/surgeon. For women I'm sure you've long been aware that an anxious upset female patient that complains can have her behavior described as hysterical. Men are more apt to have their behavior described as disturbed, combative, threatening. This sort of documentation makes the patient appear as though he or she may have or have had an underlying pyschological condition or that they are experiencing some sort of PTSS related to a failed surgery. Of course only a psychiatrist can give those diagnoses however the behavior can be documented that makes the patient appear less credible.

It's called CYA. Seen it done many times. The best way to approach litigation is without letting anyone know that's what one is considering. Reason being is the records are more likely obtainable maybe not to you but somehow and also mostly people aren't defensive and changing records to reflect things (seen this happen too) in a different light.

I don't know whether you've consulted an attorney or not however they can tell you what your chances are for any kind of recovery of $ however most of the time it's very difficult in medicine unless there it can definately be proven the problem was caused by malpractice/negligence and there is permanent damage that can be directly related to whatever the doctor/surgeon did.

Failed surgeries do happen even when the surgical approach is textbook and correct in every aspect. Not that I'm making excuses for anyone just wanted to add this in here as I realized I hadn't stated this when I wrote this originally. Also I don't want to make it sound like I think every doctor/surgeon won't cop to something if they know they did something wrong however I think it does happen. I'm not trying to badmouth doctors and/or surgeons as I worked with very fine Neurosurgeons in my career for whom I had the utmost respect. Cardiothoracic surgery and Neurosurgery were my two favorite specialities that I worked in during my career until I became unable to handle this type of nursing.

Good luck w/whatever you do and however you proceed although IMHO it should be trying to get the help you need and recover your life as best able and when you've got more energy or feel better if you still wish to pursue this type of endeavor tackle it then not now because it will be a big emotional drain for you and again IMHO you need all the positive engery you can harness to focus on your wellbeing (also hospital pockets are much deeper than your own when it comes to litigation I would venture to guess). Back to focusing on getting better as your main objective and having a positive attitude (not badmouthing previous providers) is a good thing to project as well to anyone you see who you wish to have work with you on this endeavor. I do wish you the absolute best. Please keep us posted.