David Baugher//October 29, 2024//
St. Louis County jurors have found that there was no negligence by doctors in the case of a woman who regained consciousness from back surgery to discover she was paralyzed.
“She had the surgery, woke up and can’t move her legs,” said James Reinert of Lashly Baer. “You look at the MRI and there is nothing.”
Reinert, who defended Dr. David S. Raskas and the Orthopedic & Spine Institute of St. Louis, said it still isn’t entirely clear why patient Deja Moore suffered paralysis in the wake of the operation to correct the effects of a congenital condition causing overgrowth of bone.
Plaintiff’s attorney Samuel Wendt of Wendt Law Firm said one thing was agreed upon.
“There was no question that the injury occurred during the surgery,” he noted.
Wendt put forth expert testimony to buttress his argument that the spinal cord had been negligently injured during the procedure.
Meanwhile, Reinert put forth two experts and his client each of whom put forth different theories about the cause. One opined that the problem was “white cord syndrome”, a rare complication that can occur when blood flow is restored to a previously compressed spinal cord. Another defense expert felt that the spine could have been injured by the use of tools but that it didn’t constitute negligence. Raskas himself said that the problem may have simply involved the cord shifting position when pressure was taken off of it.
“In these surgeries, the medical literature will tell you that there is as high as a 20 percent incidence of nerve injury, including paralysis, even though the surgery goes perfectly,” said Reinert. “The one thing I could say absolutely and I argued it to the jury was you’ve had four experts come in here and no one can tell you what happened exactly.”
Wendt said he pointed to dozens of MRI as well as testimony from individuals in the surgical suite to prove his case.
“Generally speaking, our expert said it was his opinion that a surgical error or direct contact with — or insult or injury to — the spinal cord by the surgeon is what ultimately caused the injury,” he said. “The defendants had a whole host of different theories, one of which actually was similar to or matched our expert’s theory.”
The only difference was that the plaintiff’s expert said that an instrument causing the injury might not constitute negligence.
Both sides agreed that Moore required the surgery as the progressive condition would otherwise leave her a paraplegic over time.
Reinert said that the final request for the jury was $17 million. Wendt said he didn’t remember the exact number but didn’t dispute it.
Reinert said the case was very emotional for everyone involved and his opposing counsel agreed.
“When they came out to read the verdict, I saw that four of the jurors were crying so I suspect that it was a difficult verdict for them to arrive to,” Wendt said.
Wendt said another defendant in the case had settled with his client allowing her to get some recovery from the litigation. He said no further action was planned in the matter.
- Defense verdict
- Medical malpractice
- Venue: St. Louis County Circuit Court
- Case Number/Date: 21SL-CC04894/June 11, 2024
- Judge: Bruce Hilton
- Plaintiffs’ Experts: John Regan, Beverly Hills, Calif., (medical); Brooke Leggett, Springfield, (accounting); Robert E. Huckfeldt, Springfield, (accounting)
- Defendants’ Experts: Akhil Khanna, Bethesda, Md., (medical); Jonathon Citow, Libertyville, Ill., (medical); Stephen Steins, Seattle, (accounting)
- Injuries: Total lower extremity paralysis and loss of bowel and bladder control
- Special Damages: $8.8 million in future medical care
- Last Pretrial Demand: $2 million
- Last Pretrial Offer: $0
- Insurer: ProAssurance
- Caption: Deja Moore; Roy Moore v. David S. Raskas, M.D.; Orthopedic & Spine Institute of St. Louis
- Plaintiffs’ Attorneys: Samuel M. Wendt of Wendt Law Firm, (Kansas City)
- Defendants’ Attorneys: James P. Reinert and William J. Magrath, Lashly & Baer, (St. Louis)
This article credit to MOLawyersMedia