A Georgia resident has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Atlanta Spine and Dr. Harvinder Bhatti. The action was filed in Fulton County and details were revealed on Tuesday in a press release from the patient’s attorneys.
Duane Cox is accusing Dr. Bhatti of performing an unnecessarily risky surgery that damaged his spinal cord and left him with serious, permanent neurological injuries.
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According to the release, Cox first visited the doctor to discuss options for addressing a calcified disc in his thoracic spine. The lawsuit alleges that while disc surgeries in the upper part of the spine are rare, Dr. Bhatti led his patient to believe that he had performed at least 20 such operations before.
Cox agreed to undergo a thoracic discectomy.
According to the complaint, surgeons typically approach upper back discs from the side or front rather than the back. However, Dr. Bhatti allegedly took the riskiest approach and injured the patient’s spinal cord
The lawsuit also claims Dr. Bhatti failed to insert a drain at the surgical site to prevent a clot from forming. It is being claimed that a clot formed over the surgical site and it may have played a part in Cox’s injuries.
Cox and his attorneys are also alleging that when the doctor became aware of the hematoma, he waited around five and a half hours before addressing it.
Cox is seeking a range of damages for medical costs and physical, emotional, and economic injuries.
No information was immediately available on how Atlanta Spine and Dr Bhatti intend to respond.