Monday 4 May 2015
Carson says that he performed a complex, detailed surgery and that Bailey’s parents were made aware of the risks associated with it.
“[L]ike always, I consulted them on the fact that I would remove as much tumor as was reasonably safe,” Carson said in a sworn affidavit. In an operative report, Carson said, he wrote he attempted to “remove all visible tumor”, which he described as removing what was “reasonably safe”.
But as a result of the surgery, according to Bailey’s court filing, “Carson severely disturbed, injured, or destroyed multiple neuronal circuits controlling the patient’s facial motor functions, horizontal gaze movements, and other psychological functions.”
When she woke up, Bailey said she was partially paralyzed on the right side of her body.
“I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk, you couldn’t understand me at all,” she told the Guardian. Previously, she wrote right-handed; post-surgery, she has learned how to write left-handed.
Bailey left the hospital using a wheelchair and underwent a grueling physical therapy process, five days a week for seven months.
“I missed most of my fourth grade year of school,” said Bailey. “I was homeschooled – tutored, really. I tested mentally retarded. I was really depressed because I was in a wheelchair.”
Her face developed a significant droop as a result of nerve damage, she said: “I don’t have a full smile. People ask me if I’ve had a stroke.”
Years later, lingering problems for Bailey persist. In 2008, Bailey said she had an operation to place a gold weight in her right eyelid to prevent a loss of vision. That only worked “partially”, she said.
At least one physician sides with Bailey.
“The location of [Bailey’s] tumor was such that it was in close proximity to the brain stem and any effort to remove all the tumor posed a significant risk of collateral injury to the brain stem and other cranial nerves,” said Robert Hudgins, a retired neurosurgeon brought on as Bailey’s expert witness, in a sworn affidavit.
Among high-risk specialties in neurosurgery – in Carson’s case, pediatric care – a Harvard researcher said the probability a physician would be sued at least once is nearly 100%. Photograph: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/via Getty Images
Before his political aspirations became clearer in the run-up to his retirement from Johns Hopkins in 2013, Carson performed up to 400 operations per year, though that number eventually dropped.
That is a high caseload for neurosurgeons, experts say, but the seven known malpractice claims against Carson in Maryland – an average of one every five years throughout his 35-year career at Johns Hopkins – are consistent with a 2011 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found roughly 20% of neurosurgeons face a malpractice claim annually.
“It’s not surprising that he’d have lawsuits against him over his career,” Anupam Jena, assistant professor of healthcare policy and medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, said of the claims against Carson.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/04/ben-carson-malpractice-claims-doctor-for-president
In the shadow of those presidential aspirations is Florida resident Austin Reynolds, who said in another pending lawsuit that Carson mistreated him, although the surgeon is not named as a party in the case.
For Karly Bailey, whether she prevails against Carson is a point of principle. She is currently receiving Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) income, she said.
“I can’t get the care I need on my Medicaid plan from a neuropathologist because they have very special skills,” she said. “And they ain’t gonna take Medicaid.”
Bailey took college classes to teach special education, but says she was unable to complete her program due to involuntary eye movements that can cause a loss of vision, which date back to her operations at Hopkins.
“That was a disaster,” Bailey said of her college experience.
Whereas Perna seemingly reconciled with Carson, Bailey takes issue with the doctor’s entry into the presidential race. Bailey, who currently does not have an attorney, says she’s raising money to finish her legal battle. A trial is scheduled for July.