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$2,150,000 Settlement for Cervical Spinal Cord Injury/Quadriparesis During Surgery

William Crutchlow, Esq. of Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, LLP with offices in Edison and Toms River, New Jersey recently settled a case for a man in his fifties who sustained cervical spinal cord damage during surgery to address significant congenital narrowing of his cervical spinal canal complicated by severe arthritic disease. Mr. Crutchlow was able to establish through the opinions of our Board Certified Neurosurgery expert that the defendant neurosurgeon had practiced below accepted standards of care in performing the wrong surgery to address our client’s problems and then improperly conducting the surgery that was done. This resulted in inadequate decompression of the cervical spinal cord, direct injury to the cord and dangerous swelling of the cord leading to further neurological damage. Our client was left with substantial loss of the use of his extremities, loss of sensation, bowel and bladder dysfunction, sexual limitations and difficulty breathing. This case was settled prior to trial for the defendant neurosurgeon’s medical malpractice insurance policy limits with contribution from the hospital where the surgery was performed.