A jury ordered Cleveland Clinic to pay $7.6 million to a woman who was paralyzed after a 2018 back surgery, cleveland.com reported June 7.
Neurosurgeon Iain Kalfas, MD, operated on Laurie Hance in October 2018 to address syringomyelia, the report said. However, during surgery, Dr. Kalfas and his team made a series of errors such as leaving a foreign object in her back and not performing an MRI after surgery. Ms. Hance had a second surgery in 2019 that left her in more pain.
Eventually, Ms. Hance was left paralyzed from the waist down, the report said.
Attorneys for Cleveland Clinic said in documents that the surgery wasn't without risks and that Dr. Kalfas and his team met the standard of care.