Originally Posted by Rfcomm

Hello All,
My name is Curt and Just joined this site in hopes to find someone that can relate to my emotional & physical pain after a botched(My Opinion) level 2 ACDF surgery back in Jan 2014. Surgeon replaced my herniated disk in C6/C7 & a bulging disk in C5/C6. That portion went fine for the most part until I awoke from surgery. I had no use of my right shoulder and my entire arm was numb. Mentioned this to the PACU nurse (twice) as my arm fell off the arm of the chair and dangled straight down. I had tried to find it using my left arm by feeling around. I had a collar on so looking down was not an option. Both times the nurse just put my arm back on the arm of the chair and said "Sometimes this happens after surgery and it should get better. Shortly thereafter they discharged me about 4 hours after the surgery with a drain tube in my neck. (had a lot of bleeding during surgery according to notes). There was a pending snow event happening later that day and they were in a rush to get me/them out of the office before so. The next day at home my right shoulder was still useless but I could move my fingers and bend at the elbow a bit. My right bicep/tricep area was all blue like a lot of blood had pooled under the skin. Went back to Dr. next day to remove drain tube and showed him my arm bruise. He seemed shocked and had no idea what it was. No further talking about that. Fast forward, after 9 months of twice a week therapy to strengthen the atrophy in my arm/shoulder muscles, I still can't lift my arm to the side very much or towards the back at all. According to two (time spaced) Nerve conduction study & EMG tests, My C5 and C6 nerves are showing Severe Acute Denervation, caused by either a hematoma or damage done during surgery were "his" words. The problem is there was no "work" performed in that area of the cervical spine according the operating Surgeon, and he doesn't know what happened...He diagnosed me with Horner's syndrome & Parsonage-Turner syndrome. First Nerve Conduction Study & EMG ruled out Parsonage-Turner syndrome.

After doing much research into my issue and reading my surgery notes, it's my belief that the Dr/staff applied excessive traction to my shoulder in a downward motion in order to get a better Fluoroscopy real-time image of needle placement into the affected disk. The notes state that "the patient has quite large shoulders and on first x-ray the needle placement showed we were at the C4-C5 level. This means that they had lower my shoulders more in order to obtain a radio image further down. This type of trauma caused the Brachial Plexus nerve bundle to become stretched. This accounts for all the nerve damage/pain, VERY little deltoid use and as well as Horner's syndrome.

I've been on 15mg Oxycodone HCL for pain and 10mg diazepam for muscle spasms for 9 months now too. Since the injury is not on the outside for people(family) to see, I don't get much support for what I'm going through. I've applied for SSDI because I cannot work and of course was denied the first go around. Now working on appeal with a lawyer. I feel sorry for folks who are going through any type of severe nerve damage as it makes life not very much fun right now. Finally talked the Surgeon to schedule and MRI of my Brachial Plexus to investigate further. Shopping around for a Malpractice attorney at this time who will take my case.