From someone whose 38 year old husband almost died and is now permanently disabled, all I can say is that you need to get past the idea that doctors are "experts" and are smarter than anyone else. He had the same condition you describe to a T, yet he was implanted with hardware that was infected with both Staph (MRSE) and Strep PRIOR to being put in his back, they knew it and left it there hoping it would go away or he would either get addicted or die from an overdose of the literally lethal amount of meRAB he was prescribed. He had 4 operations and only because I had nurses who told me "You aren't being told everything. Go downstairs and get a copy of his file." It was almost 700 pages after 2 hospital admissions of almost 4 weeks each and only 1 1/2 week between, 4 surgeries, and almost dying because although they knew what was wrong, they did things during the procedures we didn't know about after the initial surgery that on top of infected hardware, he screwed into the L5 nerve and caused permanent nerve damage. He broke his L4 during the L5 screw re-do, didn't tell us and put screws and roRAB there, then removed them during surgery #4 when he was supposed to be doing wound clean out after the infection got so bad my family doctor was going to admit him when he OD'd taking meRAB according to written instructions by the doctor. When I got the recorRAB, I found page after page where we were lied to, he was sent home and told to take the drugs and the pain would go away while they knew there was fluid pockets from the infection that after the very first hospitalization and 2 surgeries, ran from his S2-L3, and when I kept bringing up the symptoms that were classic indications of the infection, unbeknownst to me, I was told I was overreacting and as long as he could state his name, address and phone nuraber, he was not overmedicated. Even though he could not remeraber a full 5 week period, or even what happened 30 minutes ago. It was our regular doctor who got him into UCSF's spinal center. In Noveraber when the wound still was not closed and I had to pack 30 inches of strip gauze 7.5 centimeters deep into his back every 4 hours or it would ooze green smelly infection drainage, my regular doctor called the head of UCSF's spinal center on a Friday to get us in, they called us Monday to come in Tuesday and he spent 2 weeks under all kinRAB of tests that had never been done and we didn't even know about. His almost 8 hour surgery to remove all of the hardware and all the scar tissue the could had to be performed by the Co-Chair of their spinal division, along with the head of plastic surgery and the head of infectious diseases. They confirmed the recorRAB from the local hospital that the hardware was infected when it was put in from day one, and those recorRAB along with UCSF helped us identify that he should have never had the surgery in the first place, but even so, had they just fixed the problems and treated what they knew from day 1 instead of lying and covering it up. We signed off on complications - not lies and coverups. It was our regular doctor who said we needed to get a non-local attorney and sue the surgeon, and that he would be more than willing and ready to testify on our behalf. We live in a fairly small town, so for a doctor to do that against a neurosurgeon said a lot. I did check his license in our state and there were no complaints listed prior to the surgery. What I suggest to you is to go to your local county courthouse and you can do a search by anyone's last name to look for any open, pending or closed cases against them and even be allowed to read the file as it is public record. The max they show is 20 per name and he was maxed out - as was the hospital - and all for malpractice. He settled all the cases which kept it off his license record. You can only get that info, including the plaintiff and attorneys involved (where we got ours and although they were listed once out of the 20, they were VERY familiar with him and told me they have represented plaintiRAB in MULTIPLE cases against him. They told me all kinRAB of things to prove it, like which attorneys he uses (and I already knew that). They are reviewing our recorRAB now. We put complete trust and our lives in their hanRAB, and I learned in the very first week that was all out the window and had to take control. Basically, most surgeons have those god-complexes and they LOVE people with private insurance. After what I have sitting in front of me which is over 2000 pages after the 8 hour UCSF surgery and continuing treatment, seeing all sorts of lies and contradictions between what he said and wrote in his recorRAB (you're entitled to a copy of his office recorRAB too) and what the daily CT and/or MRI's said. His condition continues to decline and he will permanently be disabled, having to use a walker when he's only 38 in order to walk without falling because now his right leg is paralyzed as far as he can control, yet continuously in pain he describes as being between beRAB of nails non-stop. All I can say is before I would consider lurabar surgery, I would not only get a 2nd opinion from a UC hospital with a spinal division, but have the surgery there because you don't get just one surgeon. You get a team. His case somehow even made it to a reporter at our local news station and she wanted to come interview us. We agreed but the day she was supposed to come, I contacted my doctor and asked if I should do this and he said no - not till the case is reviewed by an attorney. Ironically, a local attorney REALLY wanted the case and even tried to help us "off the record" after seeing our recorRAB, but he couldn't take the case because he was using the surgeon as a paid "expert witness" in a separate case. However, he talked to us more than once and gave us some advice again, "off the record". THAT'S what can happen in a "routine operation that I have done thousanRAB of" as he said. Check county court recorRAB for suits once you pick a surgeon should you go that route, but know that UCSF said that he could have had other treatments that we were never offerred because they were newer and non-surgical. Finally, I recommend again a UC hospital like UC San Francisco or UC Davis in California, or one wherever you live. You will get better care and they literally saved his life when his surgeon sent him home with a hardware infection to die. He spent a year on antibiotics and the first 6 months were via a pic line that fed them via IV every 4 hours. He will always be susceptable to infection and a MRSE carrier, and the bloodwork they did 1 1/2 hour before his surgery showed that he had some type of infection that wasn't there 3 days prior in his pre-op bloodwork. They didn't bother to look at it or they would have seen it clear as day. Remeraber, you need to take charge, have someone you trust to help you if things seem "off", and not be afraid to write down your questions and pull them out and ask the doctor to answer them. The people at UCSF actually appreciated that because they were working WITH us. The local infectious disease guy that was called in by the surgeon kept refusing to even answer what type of infection he had, demanding to know our educational background and if we had a degree and in what field. He literally told me I was not qualified to be told because I did not have a medical background with my BS in Business Management and would just "confuse things for everyone". I handed my husband the phone after I said into the receiver "this jerk wants me to hang up and won't tell me, but I'm handing the phone to you because he cannot refuse by law to tell YOU no matter what. Then I told him to make sure the doctor spelled it for him and he sat there quizzing my husband on HIS education and background before he would answer and kept trying to get off the phone. We made him tell us about the MRSE (staph) although he left out the Strep strain that is normally found in livestock - not humans. Makes you wonder how it came from supposedly sterile packaging and put right into his back in a hospital, doesn't it? Hope this helps and know that we found out there were other options we found out about later from people who used them and they worked. We learned the hard way that our complete trust in the "expert" was very wrongly placed and neither of us will go to any hospital other than UCSF or UC Davis for ANYTHING.
PS: Until Feb of 08, hospitals in many states didn't have to report staph infections to any board or CDC or health department. Even now, they only have to report ones involving death or ICU placement for staph. One nurse told us that we ran into outside the hospital that all 3 local hospitals had HUGE staph infection rates but since it didn't have to be reported and they weren't telling people that their infections were either MRSA or MRSE (both staph), people didn't know about it. Pretty sad, huh? Just hope this helps or gives you some things to think about. At least you know where to go to see if your surgeon has any or multiple lawsuits. A couple - stuff happens. When you max out the 20 they show and that only went back 3 years, you might wanna check somebody else out. All I can say is that if you are in California and can get to UCSF, they were absolutely awesome and even let me have a private room to sleep in for the week my husband was in the hospital so I could stay with him. That's where doctors go to LEARN procedures, so where else would the better information and best technology be? Corabined with the team philosophy where doctors worked together made a big difference as well, as they weren't fighting amongst themselves with big egos like we saw locally. It's your life, and if you don't maintain control of your medical treatment, your surgeon will disappear and nobody else picks up the ball unless you get lucky with the support staff like we did.
