Physical Therapist Broke My Dad's Leg

[jackjack]

My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: CALIFORNIA

My dad fell off a ladder at work back in December, suffered a severe break to his knee and was going through standard recovery from a plate and pins placed in his knee. The full recovery was hindered by recurring scar tissue that prohibited full range of motion so they went in and cleaned out the scar tissue, not once but twice. After the second time, they decided to apply an aggressive manipulation that would counteract any buildup of scar tissue. My dad went to PT for the first time after surgery and during the course of the treatment they unknowingly broke his knee again in two places. He was sent home in extreme pain with instructions to continue to manipulate the knee through the pain. He went to see the doctor after nearly fainting from the pain. The doctor reviewed his x-rays and initially said, everything was fine and sent my dad home. Before he could get home, the doctor called back after reviewing xrays higher up on his leg to find that the leg was in fact BROKEN again. They had him turn around and immediately admitted him for emergency surgery but due to a fever and a low O2 saturation test of about 50% when breathing on his own they held off the surgery till this morning and opted to merely give him a spinal because there are concerns that he may have an embolism causing the low oxygen.

My dad was doing is very best to get back into able bodied shape. (He is 60 years old and an avid bodybuilder/fitness junkie all his life and has worked construction for more than 30 years). We are fearful that with this additional break now, he will be permanently disabled as the recovery from this break will require imobilization that will allow scar tissue to build up and permanently restrict his range of motion with his leg.

My question is, should we get a lawyer proactively to address compensation for his permanent disabiilty at the hands of the physical therapist/doctor's misdiagnosis, etc?

[Mr. Knowitall]

To figure out if this constitutes medical negligence, you'll need to have the case and medical records reviewed by a lawyer. So yes, if your father is interested in pursuing this as a possible malpractice case, it makes sense to be proactive.