Epidural Injection Osteomyelitis Lawsuit in Charles County

This is a lawsuit filed by a woman who contracts a serious bone infection after receiving an epidural injection by her pain medicine doctor. It was filed in Charles County on March 3, 2017, and it is the 105^th medical malpractice case filed in Maryland in 2017.

• Another epidural injection lawsuit filed in Baltimore in April 2017
• Another bone infection case filed in Maryland in 2017
• Osteomyelitis malpractice cases in Maryland along with sample settlements and verdicts

Plaintiff goes to Suburban Orthopedics with pain in her back. The clinic refers her to Radiology Imaging Associates for an MRI to identify what is causing her pain. The MRI is done and she is referred to defendant doctor and pain management facility.

The woman consults defendants regarding her pain. Defendant recommends an epidural injection. The woman agrees and he performs the injection. A few days later, the woman begins to have pain and she becomes disoriented. A week and a half later, she is admitted to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where she is hospitalized for four days.

While at Anne Arundel Medical Center, she is diagnosed with osteomyelitis (a bone infection), lumbar discitis (inflammation of the disk space often related to infection), aortic valve endocarditis with severe acute aortic valve regurgitation, and Streptococcus bacteremia. She is transferred to MedStar Washington Hospital, where they find that the infections most likely came from the epidural injection.

The woman alleges that when defendant administered the injection he introduced bacteria that caused her to contract lumbar discitis and osteomyelitis.

• All of the experts in osteomyelitis cases generally agree that early and timely diagnosis of osteomyelitis with aggressive IV antibiotic therapy would have given this woman the best outcome. Defense experts will probably concede that, more likely than not, this treatment would have prevented the destructive progression of the infection.
• But this case is different from the typical case. Here, plaintiff does not claim misdiagnosis but causing a bacterial infection that lead to the infection. The defendants are going to fight very hard on negligence because it is going to be hard to prove what the negligent act was. They will also fight on causation saying the bone infection could have been caused many things that were not the negligence of the pain doctor.
• Trouble signs are an elevated white count, an elevated sedimentation rate, swelling, pain, and elevated temperature often make a bone infection a differential diagnosis.

• Charles County

• An osteopathic physician that practices anesthesiology and pain medicine
• Center for Pain Management, LLC; National Spine & Pain Centers

• Anne Arundel Medical Center
• MedStar Washington Hospital Center

• Breach of the standard of care
• Administering the injection while plaintiff was suffering from a high temperature, high pulse rate, and excruciating lumbar pain

• Negligence - Medical Malpractice
• Negligence -Agency

• None at this time

If you have been injured as the result of the negligence of a doctor, our firm can help! We have a long history of obtaining large results in medical malpractice cases in Maryland. Call Miller & Zois today to speak to a medical malpractice attorney at (800) 553-8082 or get an online case review.

• A case filed against Suburban Orthopedics in January 2016
• Another case filed in Charles County, this one alleging wrongful death due to the failure to diagnose sepsis in a newborn