Brain Tumors
Types of brain tumors
There are many different types of brain tumors. Some are benign (nonmalignant) and others are malignant. In the malignant group, most are called gliomas. These tumors are rarely curable, but some are controllable. A small number of this group are very benign and are effectively curable.
I will rarely take on a case where an error was made if the patient started out with a poor prognosis. This is because it is hard to prove damages of any significant amount in a patient who has a brief time to live. The cost of medical negligence cases is high, and attorneys in general will pass on cases where the benefits are very limited. This is course leads to no accountability for the error made. How do we address such a problem?
Brain tumors and medical negligence
I can think of a number of brain tumor cases where the negligence was very troublesome. In one case that I have, the client had a cerebellopontine angle brain tumor that was large. The surgeon made an approach to the tumor that was guaranteed to cause collateral brain damage that was avoidable. In addition, he failed to spend the necessary time to do a careful dissection of the tumor and he damaged surrounding structures causing severe neurologic damage to the patient. One cannot remove in 30 minutes a tumor that would take an expert surgeon 2 to 3 hours to resect without roughing up the important and delicate surrounding brain tissue.
In this case, the patient survived for 4 months in a debilitated state and then died. In this case we alleged that the hospital was negligent for allowing this surgeon to operate on these types of brain tumors at their hospital. Hospital negligence for negligent credentialing is an area of importance to prevent surgeons from operating on conditions that are beyond their training or skill level.
Brain tumors need to be treated at facilities that have neurosurgeons and a wide range of supportive staff and equipment. Good post-operative care in an ICU with trained personnel is critical to good outcomes.