MORGANTOWN – A Wyoming County woman says a misdiagnosis and improper treatment from a Monongalia County physician led to more injuries.
Carol and Charles Randolph Dixon filed their complaint in Monongalia Circuit Court against Professional Medical Rehabilitation Inc. doing business as Pro Medical Rehabilitation and Dr. John David Lynch Jr.
According to the complaint, Carol Dixon suffered from lower back pain that became progressively worse over time. In 2016, she was referred to the Spine Center and was assigned to Lynch. She saw him until December 2017.
Dixon first saw Lynch on October 11, 2016, and he diagnosed “mechanical low back pain,” lumbar degenerative disk disease, facet arthropathy and some moderate neural foraminal narrowing. Lynch attributed her back pain primarily to degenerative disk disease.
He also referred her to treatment at the West Virginia University Center for Integrative Pain Management. But, she says her pain continued to worsen despite continuing treatment.
“Lynch should have realized that the medical evidence was insufficient to explain the degree of pain and dysfunction described by Mrs. Dixon to him and to other medical providers whose records were available to him,” the complaint states. “Lynch should have known that Mrs. Dixon’s lumbar MRI was normal for a woman of her age and did not explain the progressively worsening pain she was experiencing.”
According to the complaint, Dixon’s worsening back pain was caused by an undiagnosed thoracic spinal ependymoma.
“When confronted with complaints of pain that are not explained by the initial diagnosis, a physician such as Dr. Lynch has a duty to investigate further for other possible causes,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs say the defendants failed to exercise the degree of care, skill and learning required or expected of reasonably prudent health care providers. They say the proper diagnosis and treatment were delayed, thus increasing the risk of harm to Dixon.
She says she already suffered significant neurological deficits before her eventual surgery in late 2018 because of the failure to properly diagnose her thoracic spinal ependymoma, noting that she would have had a greater than 25 percent chance of an improved outcome compared to her actual outcome.
Dixon says she has suffered injuries that include spasticity, paraplegia, scarring and past and future pain and suffering that have resulted in permanent disability and the loss of enjoyment of life. She and her husband have endured past and future medical and life care expenses. She says she has lost past and future income as well.
She seeks compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interest and other relief. Her husband sues for loss of consortium. The Dixons are being represented by Allan N. Karlin of Allan N. Karlin & Associates in Morgantown.
Monongalia Circuit Court case number 20-C-334