A Texas hospital was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages after a woman’s spinal cord injury turned into paralysis due to delays in treatment. The hospital determined that it was highly likely that the injuries could have been prevented.
Judy “Jessie” Adams, who is in a singer-songwriter group with her husband Richard, attended the Premiere Interven just before leaving for a long road trip in hopes that doctors would ease her back pain. I went to National Pain Management. .
She received an epidural steroid injection (ESI) at the facility, which made her pain worse.
“he [the physician] Gave me a shot, but I couldn’t feel my legs. They tingled, but I couldn’t feel them,” Adams explained. “The pain in my back was so bad.”
She remained under observation at the facility for 90 minutes before being transported by ambulance to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. An ER doctor started a STAT MRI on her in preparation for an emergency laminectomy, but no MRI was done for another 90 minutes and she had a laminectomy over 5 hours after she first arrived. No resection was initiated.
This was against the hospital’s policy that emergency surgery must be performed in the first available operating room within one hour of admission. Delayed care resulted in paralysis and loss of the ability to sing.
They first filed a lawsuit against the doctor who treated Adams and the Texas Health Presbyterian, but the lawsuit against the doctor was settled before trial. Adams and her husband claimed in the lawsuit that the doctor probably “damaged a blood vessel during the ESI procedure, causing Jesse to bleed.”
However, the case against the hospital went to court. “I kept screaming ‘help me,’” Adams testified. According to the lawsuit, her delay in treatment left her confined to a wheelchair and incontinence.
The hospital opposed the charges during the trial. A representative of the facility claimed that Adams was already paralyzed when he arrived at the facility and that he was not delayed in treatment.
However, the jury sided with Adams and her husband. This includes his $500,000 for lost future earnings of Richard Adams and his $1 million for “consortium losses” with his wife.
Richard said he would spend the rest of his life caring for his wife rather than playing music together. They are both devastated to learn that their music careers are effectively over.
“Music has been our lifeblood for years, but he can’t do it anymore,” Adams said after the trial. I went upstairs and suddenly I wanted him to come in. I feel like waking up from this bad dream, but it’s the same routine.”
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