Man Says Kaiser Docs Botched Brain Surgery, Paralyzed Him

2-10-2013 13:47:00

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - Kaiser Permanente doctors attempting to remove a cyst on a man's brain bungled the surgery, causing such extensive damage that he will require 24-hour skilled care for the rest of his life.

Jaime Esparza says in his Orange County, Calif. complaint that doctors from the Southern California Permanente Medical Group attempted to remove a colloid cyst on his brain on Sept. 28, 2011. He says that surgeons botched the surgery and inflicted "severe neurologic injury including but not limited to quadriplegia, brain damage, meningitis, hydrocephalus, leakage of cerebral spinal fluid, a collapsed lung, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, thrombocytopenia [a condition relating to low blood platelets] and inability to swallow," according to the complaint.

Despite these serious injuries, Esparza says Kaiser doctors discharged him from the Anaheim facility just two days later "which prevented a timely diagnosis of his neurologic injuries."

"As a result of said negligence, plaintiff has sustained profound and permanent neurologic injuries which required trachestomy tube for breathing, a G-tube for feeding and a permanent Foley catheter. As a result of plaintiff's catastrophic injuries, he will require full time, 24-hour skilled nursing care for the remainder of his life, along with evaluation and treatments by physicians in multiple specialties," Esparza says in his complaint.

Esparza is represented by Marshall Silberberg of Irvine, Calif.