A medical malpractice story, part 2.

The thing that did not change was the pain. It stayed the same.

The lawsuit was initiated in 1981. By that time I had had more surgeries to try and stop the pain.

The next one is the most relevant to the medical malpractice. It was to be similar to Dr. Osterholm's so very successful one.

Dr. Wilson entered the skull through the same area as Dr. Osterhom and Dr. Jannetta. He also found numerous blood vessels that were not supposed to be there. The operation was in the summer. Because summer weather was always easier on me, no wind and rare breeze, the pain was always somewhat better. I could not tell if it was summer or the operation that gave me slight relief. Within 3 months the pain was back to the pre-operative (winter, spring, fall) level. It would stay there for years and of course, the eye usage and movement pain still remains.

Why does this matter?

My lawyer received copies of the records from Dr. Jannetta as well as Dr. Wilson and the others. Dr. Wilson's surgical report was an eye opener. He wrote "I cannot do the (procedure I wanted) because of all the scar tissue in the area." He also noted he removed an acrylic plate.

The problem was neither Dr. Jannetta nor Dr. Gendell, his resident, noted the scar tissue. That meant it was not left over from Dr. Osterholm. The only explanation was it was from the Jannetta procedure. The other thing missing from the surgical report was mention of the surgical plate, put in by Dr. Osterholm and removed by Dr. Wilson.

All three surgeons had been in the exact same place. My brain is not that big. The plate had to have been obvious but Dr. Jannetta had not noted it in his notes. Maybe the reason was because Dr. Jannetta was allegedly across town with his son who was having an emergency appendectomy at the same time I was in the OR.

Dr. Jannetta has admitted, unabashedly, in his biography, WORKING IN A VERY SMALL PLACE, allowing a resident to operate on a woman who had just given birth. She had a brain tumor. The surgery was unsuccessful, she died on the table. Dr. Jannetta relates that when the resident called to tell him the patient had died he had to come into the hospital: he had not only not been in the OR, he was not in the building. It looked like the same thing happened with my surgery, that Dr. Gendell and not Dr. Jannetta had been the surgeon.

Because of the scar tissue Dr. Wilson was unable to help me. Had he been able to complete the operation he intended and his surgery not helped that would have been the chance you take. Had Dr. Jannetta's surgery not worked that would have been the chance you take.

The problem was that was not the chance I had signed up for. I consented to Dr. Jannetta's operation - to be done safely by Dr. Jannetta.

The pain could not be helped because the area was no longer available to that help because of the scar tissue.

So that was where I stood: Facial paralyis, an eye sewn shut, an inability to eat in public or drink from a glass, people staring at me, fear that I might inadvertantly catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror or storefront window. And surgical avenues to the extra blood vessels that caused the pain no longer safely reachable.

It was now completely in the hands of my lawyer.