The state or country I am talking about is: california
I had an attorney when the damage was first done, after going through at least 25 rejections. This attorney didnt do a flippin thing and 2 weeks before the statute of limitations runs out he drops me. I couldnt find another attorney to help me, and from what the doctors were telling me my leg hurting wasnt caused by the accident anyway, so I gave up until recently. Now that they found rsd, and it was caused by the original injury, a couple of my doctors are telling me off the record of course to seek legal help.
In March 31, 2000, I was driving down the mountain from the casino to town to meet a couple of radio station reps for dinner, when I realized I was having this weird numb feeling in my left arm and face, with a tight feeling across my chest, and a major pain in my chest making me sweat. I called my doctor's office, and they had me go straight to the ER.
They did a ekg, but it showed no heart attack, and did some more tests, and decided to keep me over and do an angiogram first thing in the morning. During the night they discovered I had an ulcer, but because my dad died at age 48 from heart failure, and I was 41, they were still going to do the angio to make sure I still wasn't at risk. Well at 7 am they rolled me in and did the procedure, and I can't remember a thing until I awoke in the ICU.
They told me that they just didnt have any other place to put me, and the angio showed im fine. Boy was that a relief kinda, but I wouldnt feel better till I was out of ICU really. Well this is about 9 am now, and throughout the day I bet every nurse in the hospital came and checked on the pulse in my feet and legs. About 3 pm im starting to wonder if they are telling me the truth or not, cause im still here, no doc visit, no food, no release, and when I ask the nurse she says im goin home soon. Well about 9 pm im starting to get a little bit more worried, and I ask the nurse to call the doctor and remind him they have me in ICU, and it is no fun and if im ok please let me go home! All this time the nurses have continued to check the pulse in my legs and feet. At 11:30 pm they finally send me home and you never seen a happier guy.
Well that happiness didnt last to long at all, that night and the next morning im noticing a dull ache over coming my entire right leg. The next day it is almost unbearable and I call the doctor, and he tells me not to be a baby that it is gonna hurt. I dont agree, but maybe he is right and I will give it more time. 4 days go by and im a mess, literally rolling around on the floor screaming in pain, and my wife calls the doctor and they blow her off. So she calls the hospital, and they pretty much tell her it could hurt like that but should stop. Well after calling the doc so many times he starts having my calls screened and they go to an answering machine, that really makes me mad. I only take one day of that and im down there visiting him.
I just go visit this doctor, and I was going to be seen no matter what.Once inside I noticed the place was packed, and I didnt want to wait to long so this kinda scared me. I told the receptionist I needed to be seen and it was an emergency, she asked my name, and when I said my name she told me it was a 2 week wait! I told her it is an emergency and I need to be seen today not 2 weeks. She told me she knows who I am, and that ive been calling all week and she is sorry but 2 weeks is best she can do. I told her that she better let me talk to the doctor about that, and she replied in 2 weeks. I totally lost it at this point and told her that the doctor had 45 minutes in which to see me or I was going to go outside and jump up and down on his fancy red car, time starts now, and I went and sat down. It was about 5 minutes and the doctor himself called my name!
Well soon as I stepped into the back he began to cuss me out. As I followed him to a room he let me know that he has done over 900 of these procedures and never has any gone wrong. He starts checking the wrong leg, and says there is a pulse! Mind you I havent said one word to him yet, but I now say wrong leg, and he starts cussing a blue streak. Well he starts checking the other leg and he gets quiet for a minute, then says I think I feel a pulse, there is nothing wrong with you. I cant believe what he just said, I tell him What did you say!? On the other leg you said there is a pulse, on this one you say I think, im not going for I think!. He starts cussing again, and checks again, and says I think there is a pulse. I tell him is that the best you can do? I think. That sets him off, he jumps up and starts dialing the phone, then tells me he is sending me for a doppler, and asks me sarcasticly if thats ok with me. I tell him sure is, but it has to be today. Soon as I said "today" he started cussing again. Then he tells me real mean like hows 20 minutes, and get my @$!! out of there.
Well the doppler was cool, it was a little microphone. The doctor started on my left leg, and I thought geez cant these guys read, and told him the right leg. He told me he had to make sure it was working, and sure enough you could hear the heart beating in the ankle and behind the knee, it was real cool. When he put it on the right leg there was no sound at all, so he put it on the left again and boom boom, the right, OMG! he says go check yourself into the hospital right now.
The femoral artery is completely blocked at the angiogram entry site, and was caused by them pushing some kind of plug to far.They do surgery to remove the plug, and save the leg. They saved the leg, but maybe they should have cut it off. The femoral artery was blocked off for 7 days to the right leg.Well the leg just wont stop hurting, but I go back to work. I work a little over a year more but the leg is just killin me, and it is weak and feels like my ankle is broken. It causes me to lose my job, but I keep trying to work because the doctors look at my leg and ankle and say it looks fine. It feels like it did when the bloodflow was blocked off, and more, but do the doctors believe, no way! I apply for SSI and continue to seek help from the doctor.
Finally he sends me to a neurologist that does a emg on me, and it comes back that I have problems in the L5 - S1 area in the spine, and the H reflex is absent, so they suspect this is from a compressed nerve. Now this is the summer of 2003, and im thinking finally we have something to go on, maybe we will finally stop the pain. My doctor then sends me to a neurosurgeon after seeing the results of this test, and she is very nice, and starts more tests. Well because I have the worst insurance you can get it takes forever to get approved for some of the tests, it puts me into 2004 before we have all the results back, and she is telling me there is nothing wrong with my back, and she can do nothing for me cause she only does back surgeries, but have I ever heard of RSD? I never heard of RSD.
I head back to the doctor with this info now, and he says he isn't sure about RSD, but to make sure he will send me to a vascularsurgeon to check and make sure that my problems aren;t scar tissue related. It could be that the scar tissue where they took out the blockage is now pressing on the nerves, and also pressing on the femoral artery reducing the bloodflow to the leg causing me all this pain.
Now this is sept 2004, and I go see this guy. He looks me over real well and the first thing out of his mouth is, has anyone told you you are disabled? I tell him no, but I have applied for SSI and that I have been denied a couple of times and not a doctor one is helping me to get any lind of disability. He told me not to worry he will make sure that I get SSI, just make sure SSI contacts him about me. I wanted to give him a hug right there. Then he tells me I have something that all doctors have known about since the civil war called crps or rsd, and once called causalgia. He went on to say that the doctors that worked on my leg when it was blocked knew that when you suffer hypoxia or ischemia, from a severe or catastrophic event, the chances of getting rsd are very good, and that they should have started the treatments to stop it even if there was no rsd present at the time.
That really made me mad! They knew the whole time I asked him? He told me it was common knowledge in the vascular field, and not to believe anyone that says anything different. I felt a deep relief that there was someone that knew what happened and how I was feeling, and that he was going to help me.
Now that my doctor has agreed I have rsd, he is giving ms contin and oxy ir for breakthrough pain, and topomax for burning pain. It hasnt taken the pain completely away, but it is making life much better than it was, and here lately the leg is so weak that I cant go to long before I have to use a wheelchair, but I can do ok at home thank god. The right ankle is now stiff and weak, and feels like it is broken still, and now the knee and hip are starting to have the same problems the ankle started having before it became like it is today, with burning and deep aching, with major weakness, and muscle atrophy. I even think that the rsd is spreading into the lower back, but it is so hard to get the doctors to acknowledge anything until they see actual evidence, but by then it will be pretty much damaged goods.
Do I have a case for the rsd, or anything? Or am I just lucky to be alive?
I really dont want to go expending a huge amount of time and energy to be let down some more when I can hardly deal with my health issues. I hope you can shine some light my direction, because it has been a long tough road since that day.
Thanks for this great site
Allen
I had an attorney when the damage was first done, after going through at least 25 rejections. This attorney didnt do a flippin thing and 2 weeks before the statute of limitations runs out he drops me. I couldnt find another attorney to help me, and from what the doctors were telling me my leg hurting wasnt caused by the accident anyway, so I gave up until recently. Now that they found rsd, and it was caused by the original injury, a couple of my doctors are telling me off the record of course to seek legal help.
In March 31, 2000, I was driving down the mountain from the casino to town to meet a couple of radio station reps for dinner, when I realized I was having this weird numb feeling in my left arm and face, with a tight feeling across my chest, and a major pain in my chest making me sweat. I called my doctor's office, and they had me go straight to the ER.
They did a ekg, but it showed no heart attack, and did some more tests, and decided to keep me over and do an angiogram first thing in the morning. During the night they discovered I had an ulcer, but because my dad died at age 48 from heart failure, and I was 41, they were still going to do the angio to make sure I still wasn't at risk. Well at 7 am they rolled me in and did the procedure, and I can't remember a thing until I awoke in the ICU.
They told me that they just didnt have any other place to put me, and the angio showed im fine. Boy was that a relief kinda, but I wouldnt feel better till I was out of ICU really. Well this is about 9 am now, and throughout the day I bet every nurse in the hospital came and checked on the pulse in my feet and legs. About 3 pm im starting to wonder if they are telling me the truth or not, cause im still here, no doc visit, no food, no release, and when I ask the nurse she says im goin home soon. Well about 9 pm im starting to get a little bit more worried, and I ask the nurse to call the doctor and remind him they have me in ICU, and it is no fun and if im ok please let me go home! All this time the nurses have continued to check the pulse in my legs and feet. At 11:30 pm they finally send me home and you never seen a happier guy.
Well that happiness didnt last to long at all, that night and the next morning im noticing a dull ache over coming my entire right leg. The next day it is almost unbearable and I call the doctor, and he tells me not to be a baby that it is gonna hurt. I dont agree, but maybe he is right and I will give it more time. 4 days go by and im a mess, literally rolling around on the floor screaming in pain, and my wife calls the doctor and they blow her off. So she calls the hospital, and they pretty much tell her it could hurt like that but should stop. Well after calling the doc so many times he starts having my calls screened and they go to an answering machine, that really makes me mad. I only take one day of that and im down there visiting him.
I just go visit this doctor, and I was going to be seen no matter what.Once inside I noticed the place was packed, and I didnt want to wait to long so this kinda scared me. I told the receptionist I needed to be seen and it was an emergency, she asked my name, and when I said my name she told me it was a 2 week wait! I told her it is an emergency and I need to be seen today not 2 weeks. She told me she knows who I am, and that ive been calling all week and she is sorry but 2 weeks is best she can do. I told her that she better let me talk to the doctor about that, and she replied in 2 weeks. I totally lost it at this point and told her that the doctor had 45 minutes in which to see me or I was going to go outside and jump up and down on his fancy red car, time starts now, and I went and sat down. It was about 5 minutes and the doctor himself called my name!
Well soon as I stepped into the back he began to cuss me out. As I followed him to a room he let me know that he has done over 900 of these procedures and never has any gone wrong. He starts checking the wrong leg, and says there is a pulse! Mind you I havent said one word to him yet, but I now say wrong leg, and he starts cussing a blue streak. Well he starts checking the other leg and he gets quiet for a minute, then says I think I feel a pulse, there is nothing wrong with you. I cant believe what he just said, I tell him What did you say!? On the other leg you said there is a pulse, on this one you say I think, im not going for I think!. He starts cussing again, and checks again, and says I think there is a pulse. I tell him is that the best you can do? I think. That sets him off, he jumps up and starts dialing the phone, then tells me he is sending me for a doppler, and asks me sarcasticly if thats ok with me. I tell him sure is, but it has to be today. Soon as I said "today" he started cussing again. Then he tells me real mean like hows 20 minutes, and get my @$!! out of there.
Well the doppler was cool, it was a little microphone. The doctor started on my left leg, and I thought geez cant these guys read, and told him the right leg. He told me he had to make sure it was working, and sure enough you could hear the heart beating in the ankle and behind the knee, it was real cool. When he put it on the right leg there was no sound at all, so he put it on the left again and boom boom, the right, OMG! he says go check yourself into the hospital right now.
The femoral artery is completely blocked at the angiogram entry site, and was caused by them pushing some kind of plug to far.They do surgery to remove the plug, and save the leg. They saved the leg, but maybe they should have cut it off. The femoral artery was blocked off for 7 days to the right leg.Well the leg just wont stop hurting, but I go back to work. I work a little over a year more but the leg is just killin me, and it is weak and feels like my ankle is broken. It causes me to lose my job, but I keep trying to work because the doctors look at my leg and ankle and say it looks fine. It feels like it did when the bloodflow was blocked off, and more, but do the doctors believe, no way! I apply for SSI and continue to seek help from the doctor.
Finally he sends me to a neurologist that does a emg on me, and it comes back that I have problems in the L5 - S1 area in the spine, and the H reflex is absent, so they suspect this is from a compressed nerve. Now this is the summer of 2003, and im thinking finally we have something to go on, maybe we will finally stop the pain. My doctor then sends me to a neurosurgeon after seeing the results of this test, and she is very nice, and starts more tests. Well because I have the worst insurance you can get it takes forever to get approved for some of the tests, it puts me into 2004 before we have all the results back, and she is telling me there is nothing wrong with my back, and she can do nothing for me cause she only does back surgeries, but have I ever heard of RSD? I never heard of RSD.
I head back to the doctor with this info now, and he says he isn't sure about RSD, but to make sure he will send me to a vascularsurgeon to check and make sure that my problems aren;t scar tissue related. It could be that the scar tissue where they took out the blockage is now pressing on the nerves, and also pressing on the femoral artery reducing the bloodflow to the leg causing me all this pain.
Now this is sept 2004, and I go see this guy. He looks me over real well and the first thing out of his mouth is, has anyone told you you are disabled? I tell him no, but I have applied for SSI and that I have been denied a couple of times and not a doctor one is helping me to get any lind of disability. He told me not to worry he will make sure that I get SSI, just make sure SSI contacts him about me. I wanted to give him a hug right there. Then he tells me I have something that all doctors have known about since the civil war called crps or rsd, and once called causalgia. He went on to say that the doctors that worked on my leg when it was blocked knew that when you suffer hypoxia or ischemia, from a severe or catastrophic event, the chances of getting rsd are very good, and that they should have started the treatments to stop it even if there was no rsd present at the time.
That really made me mad! They knew the whole time I asked him? He told me it was common knowledge in the vascular field, and not to believe anyone that says anything different. I felt a deep relief that there was someone that knew what happened and how I was feeling, and that he was going to help me.
Now that my doctor has agreed I have rsd, he is giving ms contin and oxy ir for breakthrough pain, and topomax for burning pain. It hasnt taken the pain completely away, but it is making life much better than it was, and here lately the leg is so weak that I cant go to long before I have to use a wheelchair, but I can do ok at home thank god. The right ankle is now stiff and weak, and feels like it is broken still, and now the knee and hip are starting to have the same problems the ankle started having before it became like it is today, with burning and deep aching, with major weakness, and muscle atrophy. I even think that the rsd is spreading into the lower back, but it is so hard to get the doctors to acknowledge anything until they see actual evidence, but by then it will be pretty much damaged goods.
Do I have a case for the rsd, or anything? Or am I just lucky to be alive?
I really dont want to go expending a huge amount of time and energy to be let down some more when I can hardly deal with my health issues. I hope you can shine some light my direction, because it has been a long tough road since that day.
Thanks for this great site
Allen
