Spinal Cord Injury in a child
Settlement: $ 2,450,000

This 2 year old child was born with a congenital malformation of his cervical spine, causing it to be unstable and jeopardizing his spinal cord. While x-rays of his skull and chest revealed the abnormality in the cervical spine, the radiologists who read the films (concentrating on the skull and chest, which were the areas of inquiry) failed to notice the spinal abnormalities. The congenital malformation went undetected.

One day while jumping on the bed with his sisters, the child fell and dislocated the vertebra in his spine. His spinal cord was damaged, and he was unable to move his arms and legs normally. His parents took him to a local hospital, where the acute care physician did no neck x-rays, and sent him home. When his parents brought him back to the hospital's emergency room 2 days later, the child was unable to walk or stand. The emergency room doctor did a CT scan of the head, but not of the spine. He sent the child home again. Finally, 6 days after the fall from the bed, the child's pediatrician ordered cervical spine films. The diagnosis of spinal cord injury was made, but the spinal cord was permanently injured.

The two radiologists and the hospital's emergency doctor contributed to the total settlement.