On Aug. 15, 2023, the defendant is said to have failed to elicit a proper medical history from the plaintiff, including current medications used. The chiropractor also is claimed to have failed to provide him with a sufficient pre-treatment screening and assessment. Thirdly, the plaintiff claimed that the chiropractor gave him a manipulation that was contraindicated for him, which caused bleeding into the epidural space, progressive spinal compression, and need for emergency decompression surgery.
Immediately after the chiropractic manipulation, the plaintiff felt nauseous and started vomitting. He went home and began to feel right-sided weakness in his leg. Subsequently, he went to his local emergency department. The patient was immediately transferred to another hospital for an urgent laminectomy. There he remained hospitalized for a week and received physical therapy. The patient made a satisfactory recovery and was able to return to work eight weeks later.
Florence A. Carey of Crowe & Harris, Boston, the plaintiff’s expert, was of the opinion that, if the defendant had appropriately elicited information from the patient, in accordance with the accepted standard of medical care and treatment, he would have learned that the plaintiff was on anticoagulation therapy and, more likely than not, the defendant would not have performed a high velocity, low amplitude manipulation on him.
The case was settled for an amount of US $ 700,000.
This seems a fairly typical example of a serious injury caused by chiropractic spinal manipulation combined with insufficient informed consent. Such incidents do often not show up in the medical literature – instead, they are settled via legal actions which often precludes the publication of the case in a medical journal. As these cases remain undocumented in medical terms, and as chiropractors have managed to avoid creating a comprehensive monitoting system of such events, the chiropractic profession uses this situation as an opportunity to (falsely) claim that the risks of chiropractic are negligibly small or even non-existent.
And what might be the solution?
Simple!
Avoid consulting a chiropractor or any other healthcare professional who wants to manipulate your neck. Such treatments do no good and can cause serious harm.
6 Responses to Patient suffers spinal bleed after chiropractor visit
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“On Aug. 15, 2023, the defendant is said to have failed to elicit a proper medical history from the plaintiff, including current medications used.”
OK, I’ll admit up front that I’m posting this comment before reading further. But immediately it poses a HUGE question: What in hell can a chiropractor determine from a customer’s medical history and a list of his/her medications? DCs have about as much expertise in this area as my Aunt Sophie.
On one of my person-to-person investigative encounters with a “doctor” of chiropractic, I responded to his request for a list of my meds. His response was to ask me if I wanted to take pills for the rest of my life. I assumed (correctly I’d wager) that this was a lead-in to his telling me that if I signed up for his services, he’d be able to free me from prescriptions drugs by subjecting me to whatever chiro voodoo he performed.
Bottom line: another reason to avoid chiropractors and chiropractic.
Now I’ll read the rest of the article…
KY: What in hell can a chiropractor determine from a customer’s medical history and a list of his/her medications?
Strange question.
We do so to see if the treatment approach needs to be modified.
Some medications may be a contraindication to SMT (as in the case presented) while others can be the cause or a contributing factor to MSK pain.
If chiros are exposed to any training in this area, my guess is that it’s presented entirely from a chiropractic point of view and that it’s of questionable value. Chiropractic is the antithesis of science-based medicine.
My instructor in chiropractic college was the professor at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. We became friends. He wasn’t a fan of chiropractors.
Regardless, we need to know what they are taking for the reasons I gave.
[my emphasis]
Pick your “poison”?
“Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as include aspirin and ibuprofen, are a common form of over-the-counter treatment for back pain. But new research suggests that any small amount of relief to be gained from them wouldn’t be considered clinically significant.
Worse still, like all drugs, NSAIDs more than double the chance of developing gastrointestinal bleeding, and might present increased chances of cardiovascular problems. Meaning sufferers of back pain are taking quite a risk for an insignificant pay-off.”
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-aspirin-and-ibuprofen-are-useless-for-back-pain#