Jury Awards Patient $550k After Botched Peripheral Nerve Block

An Ohio jury has awarded $554,022 to a patient who lost the full use of her leg after a peripheral nerve block at Evandale Surgical Center in Cincinnati in 2009, according to Outpatient Surgery.

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Lydia Long underwent a closed knee manipulation at the surgery center to treat scar tissue that had developed after a total knee arthroplasty. She alleged the femoral nerve block performed by Donald Raithel, MD, damaged her nerve.

After a year of physical therapy, Ms. Long still walked with a limp. Dr. Raithel countered that the knee manipulation had stretched the nerve and caused the damage.

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