The human body receives information through five fundamental senses. It can be easy to take sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch for granted, as they are part of our everyday lives. Strip away any one of those senses, and you will have fundamentally altered the way a person lives their life.
Jeffery Daniels, a retired attorney with 55 years of experience spent pouring over documents to assist his clients, looked forward to spending the rest of his life on personal pursuits with his family. He relished the idea of having as much time as he wanted to spend on restoring vintage automobiles, reading, gardening, and painting: activities that all depend in no small measure upon a person’s ability to see. Unfortunately for Mr. Daniels, a medical error would rob him of his vision and the joy he would have experienced living out the remainder of his life with all his fundamental senses intact.
Mr. Daniels developed a nasal blockage and discharge. At first, he chalked it up to a simple stuffy nose. As his symptoms persisted, Mr. Daniels went to an otolaryngologist for advice. Dr. Anderson recognized that Mr. Daniels’s symptoms warranted a closer look and ordered various diagnostic imaging tests. At his doctor’s orders, Mr. Daniels underwent a CT scan and nasal endoscopy. The CT scan showed bilateral sinus thickening, which suggested the presence of mycetoma – in essence, a ball of fungus. Dr. Anderson noted sinus inflammation and possible mycetoma and recommended what he described as a minimally invasive in – office surgical procedure.
Mr. Daniels went ahead with the surgery recommended by Dr. Anderson. Cultures taken during the surgery came back positive for Aspergillus and pseudomonas, a common fungus and readily treatable bacterial infection, respectively. The procedure, an interior turbinate balloon sinuplasty, was intended to expand the sinuses and increase drainage, thereby remedying the infection. However, the procedure performed by Dr. Anderson failed to remove all the fungus. Moreover, the amount of fungus visible on the CT scan ordered by Dr. Anderson warranted a traditional sinus surgery to ensure the removal of all the fungus.
Unfortunately, just a couple of weeks after the procedure, Mr. Daniels was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms. A CT scan performed at the hospital showed that the sinus infection had progressed significantly. The infection had spread so severely that it caused the tissues surrounding the bone at the base of the skull of the sinuses to become separated. Dr. Anderson continued to treat Mr. Daniels. However, he failed to recommend a follow – up surgery and instead discharged Mr. Daniels with a prescription for a cocktail of antibiotics.
Days later, Mr. Daniels awoke in pain and, to his shock, blindness in his right eye. Aided by his family, Mr. Daniels immediately sought care at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. The doctors there quickly determined that the fungal ball had progressed into invasive fungal sinus itis and infiltrated Mr. Daniels’s optic nerve. Doctors rushed Mr. Daniels to the operating room, where a right sinus surgery and craniotomy were performed, saving his life.
While Mr. Daniels escaped the ordeal with his life, he did not escape with his vision.
Devastated by the loss of his sight, Mr. Daniels came to David Sampedro looking for answers and advice. David contacted an expert otolaryngologist who determined that Dr. Anderson’s failure to perform traditional sinus surgery rather than the balloon sinuplasty was a deviation in the standard of care. The expert also opined that inadequate care management and failure to perform surgical intervention during Mr. Daniels’s initial hospitalization deviated from the standard of care resulting in Mr. Daniels’s vision loss.
David filed suit on behalf of Mr. Daniels, who was once the lawyer and now the client. After considerable litigation and formal discovery, the case was resolved at mediation for a confidential amount
