My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: North Carolina
In August of 2013 I started having a mild numbness in my bottom lip that would come and go. By the end of September, the mild numbness had escalated to excruciating pain from my temple, down the side of my face to the center of my chin and bottom lip. I have an extremely high threshold for pain, so when I saw it was excruciating, it was! I went to my primary care physician, and she felt that based on my symptoms, I had trigeminal neuralgia. She prescribed Tramadol, and referred me to a local neurologist that is part of the largest medical practice in the county I live in.
At my appointment with him, he agreed with her diagnosis, and explained why Tramadol does not work for nerve pain. He mentioned that he would put me on Neurontin, and schedule me for an MRI. As I was leaving his office, I asked the nurse about the prescription, and she was quite hateful and said that there was nothing in his notes about a prescription. This was on a Monday. The next day, the same nurse called me to let me know when my MRI was scheduled (the following Monday in October). I asked her about getting something for the pain, and she informed me that the doctor does not prescribe pain medication. I got very upset, and told her that the whole reason I saw the doctor was because of the unbearable pain I was in. She again was hateful and said she would talk to the doctor and call me back. At the end of the day she finally called back and said that the doctor was faxing my pharmacy a prescription for Tramadol. I explained that he had already told me Tramadol does not help nerve pain, and asked why was he prescribing that. Her exact words to me were "Well what DO you want???" in a very hateful tone of voice. My reply was that I want something that works. She then asked me if the Neurontin wasn't working. I asked what she was talking about? She said that a prescription for it had been sent to my pharmacy the day before. I had to inform her that no one had told me that. Her tone changed after that, so i'm going to assume she screwed up.
The following week, on Monday, I had my MRI (at the cost of over $1300). It took until Friday to get results from the doctor, and he said that there was nothing on the MRI, and the only thing he could do is refer me to another neurologist or a pain management clinic. His attitude was that I was exaggerating the extent of my pain and he was treating me like a drug seeker. I declined both since I could not afford to keep going to different doctors when 2 had given me the same diagnosis, and I didn't want to just cover the pain up. I just got used to the pain and was dealing with it.
Fast forward to January, and I go to an appointment with a new dentist. During the series of x-rays that they do for new patients, the dentist sees dark areas on the x-rays that concern her, and she was shocked that the dark areas were not seen on the MRI when I told her I had had one just a couple of months earlier. She immediately sends me across the street to an oral surgeon. He looks at the x-rays, and starts talking about chemo and losing my teeth. He was also shocked that the previous MRI did not turn up these dark areas. I have never been so scared in my life!
It took 2 weeks, but I got an appointment at a local university's dental school (only oral surgeon considered in-network with my insurance), and saw a world-class oral surgeon. What I had was a large tumor on the left jaw bone that had destroyed most of the bone. I was put on a soft diet until surgery to remove the tumor because I had so little bone left, and my jaw could have shattered if I bit down on something too hard. A CT scan turned up a tumor not quite as advanced on the right side of my jaw bone as well. I was told that it is very rare for this type of tumor to be found on both sides. I had surgery at the end of January, and the surgeon was able to remove all of the tumors, with minimal nerve damage and he was able to save all of my bottom teeth. That was a concern because the tumors were up around the roots of my teeth and wrapped around the nerves in my chin.
I would like to have the MRI from October reviewed again. The oral surgeon who removed the tumor was also surprised that supposedly nothing was seen on the MRI.
If the MRI is reviewed by a different radiologist, and it turns out that the tumors could be seen, do I have a medical malpractice suit?
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