Lung Punctured During Trigger Point Injection

[DebO]

I am in Arkansas.
A doctor punctured my lung while administering trigger point
injections. I felt sick and had to lay down. It was a slow leak,
so it was evening before I had a lot of chest pain. I had many
injections so at first I just thought the area was in trauma. The
next day I began to cough and experience shortness of breath.
I called the doctor's office, but it was a weekend, so he associate
called me back. The associate said the doctor could have punctured
my lung but that it was very rare. He said anxiety could cause my
symptoms and that "I did not sound THAT out of breath". A day and
a half later I ended up in the emergency room, diagnosed with a
40% collapsed lung. A surgeon inserted a tube through my chest
wall to reinflate the lung. I was sent home several days later, was
told to stay off work at least a week, which I did. I worked partial
days for the next couple of weeks after that. My family doctor has
put me on breathing treatments and inhalers. He says it will take
months to fully recover. The doctor who punctured my lung never
warned me of this (or any other) risk. Is this medical malpractice?

[deadlock]

Deb,

I know little about this type of treatment. So I researched several websites and each one states complications of this procedure are rare and include pneumothorax.

You were short of breath and called the office. Are you thinking that the person you spoke with should have told you to go to the ER but did not?

The best person to explain what happened to you and advise you if you have a potential case is the thoracic surgeon who re-established the negative pressure in the pleural space. That person knows the extent of the complications and can advise you on what might have happened.

Not being presented with the potential complications (then having you sign an informed consent to indicate this was discussed) could be considered negligent. But it will require expert testimony and you being able to prove among other things:

1- IF you had had known the possible complication was pneumothorax and had you been told this, you would not have had the treatment, AND

2- Any reasonable person would not have had the treatment under the same circumstances if they knew of those same complications you might then prove the damages were negligence on the part of the treating doctor.

I think it would be difficult to prove negligence, but you should first find out the facts from the surgeon and then get legal advice from a medical malpractice attorney.

[llunzer]

Hello,
I just read your story, and I just got out of the hospital yesterday with a punctured and collapsed lung due to trigger point injection therapy. Your story is almost identical to mine. I noticed this occurred in 2007. Did you end up getting compensation for medical malpractice? Just curious because I was thinking about trying to get some compensation myself. The whole situation was painful. I had my therapy done by an anesthesiologist, and his reaction when I called him about my chest pains and short of breath was also that it was very rare and unlikely he had punctured my lung. Well, he did and I was never informed by him verbally that it was a possible risk of the injections.
Thanks
Laura

[Dogmatique]

Perhaps not verbally, but you almost certainly signed an informed consent form that outlined the risks.
That aside, please list your US state. It makes a great deal of difference.