Light at the end of the tunnel!

[SweetSecret]

A few weeks ago I was awarded a small scholarship ($125) to pay for the TESC application and transcripts to be sent over. I applied and was accepted, although I still haven't received the check to send over my transcripts. I am hopeful though, and that was the first speck of light.

Now, a year and a half after my knee injury which left me unable to work (dancing), unable to collect unemployment, and unable to get disability... I FINALLY got the MRI I needed. This is really the light at the end of the tunnel! The first local hospital I had gone to had blown off my complaint when I said I seriously thought I had a meniscus tear. I was seen by a P.A., not even a doctor. The P.A. sent me for an x-ray (which the meniscus tears don't show up on) and said it was simply arthritis. Then the hospital sent me an outrageously expensive bill, which I couldn't pay since I couldn't work. I tried working with their credit department, but finally gave up frustrated after meeting with them 4x in person. Anyhow, being out of work for a year and a half has been miserable for me in every way possible. Without the evidence of major injury, I couldn't even get help finding other work through the Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation... particularly when DVR requested my medical records and the hospital came back then saying it was just a sprained knee.

With ObamaCare kicking in, I was finally able to get an MRI this week at one of the other hospitals, and just as I suspected... it's a meniscus tear. I feel like I've had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders! I'm still not sure if I'll be able to get temporary disability until I can have surgery, but even after it looks like I won't be able to work for awhile. I'll at least be able to get help with job placement through DVR now though.

I think by the time all is said and done with surgery, I'll have been out of work for over 2 years, and endured a over a year and a half of chronic pain. I'm so out of shape now that I really couldn't earn what I used to, and I've lost pretty much my entire professional network because people think I've retired. At this point getting well-paying work through agents would prove difficult because I couldn't really exercise, and I haven't kept my professional credits up to date.

I'm seriously considering speaking to a lawyer to see if I might be able to take the hospital to court for medical malpractice/negligence, since it turned out that I was correct about what the problem was, and they should have provided me the MRI that I asked for upfront. Has anyone else gone through a medical malpractice case? I'm just wondering what the outcome was. How much do the lawyers normally want if paid on a contingency fee? What did your awarded amount cover? How much of your award ended up going towards taxes? I think the first hospital has no right to charge me for an x-ray when I told them I needed an MRI, so I'd like that charge dropped at the very least. but feel like I should be able to get a significant sum, especially since leaving it torn for a year and a half could have made it worse. Plus, since the type of tear I have will require me to probably be in a leg brace for a few months and go through physical therapy, this might be an ideal time for me to take any financial compensation and put it back into finishing my education. If I can get enough though, I think it would also be a good time to start the social enterprise dinner theatre I've been considering. I've actually been working on the business plans for a year.

Thanks for hearing me out! I'm just in a much better mood than I have been for months! Being in constant pain with everyone thinking I was just being dramatic/"imagining the pain" was making me very crabby. I did watch a video of a girl who was told she had the same type of meniscus tear, then went through surgery only to find out it was her patella causing her pain, so I may have the MRI's looked at by a second physician. Given that it's been a year and a half, I'm pretty sure I'll need to have the surgery. I'll be so glad to have the pain gone though! I just needed to voice all of this, and have my own little celebration!

:hurray:

[ironheadjack]

Definitely due your research before you jump into surgery.

I had a lateral complex tear of my meniscus, the ortho said that "fixing it" is nearly impossible so what they do is remove the torn area. Long story short I felt worse after the surgery, couldn't run anymore because the meniscus(cushion) between my leg bones had been removed. Going through with the surgery ended up getting me a medical discharge from the Army....and I will probably have pretty bad arthritis before I'm 35.

Point of the story surgery isn't always a magic cure, get second....third opinions.

[SweetSecret]

Definitely due your research before you jump into surgery.

I had a lateral complex tear of my meniscus, the ortho said that "fixing it" is nearly impossible so what they do is remove the torn area. Long story short I felt worse after the surgery, couldn't run anymore because the meniscus(cushion) between my leg bones had been removed. Going through with the surgery ended up getting me a medical discharge from the Army....and I will probably have pretty bad arthritis before I'm 35.

Point of the story surgery isn't always a magic cure, get second....third opinions.

The results report said mine is:

"obliquely oriented inferior surface tear of the medial meniscus posterior horn that propagates into the meniscal ligament root insertion and towards the body junction."
Further below it goes onto say that there is a lot of inflammation in the area... probably from leaving this unresolved for a year and a half.

There is actually a doctor about an hour away from here who specializes in knee injuries, so I may see if my MRI scans can be sent to him for a second opinion before I jump into surgery.

Thank you for responding! Knowing someone else has been through this and understands probably helps me the most right now. I'll certainly see about the second opinion as you advised.

[Lindagerr]

I am sorry to hear of the problems you have had with your knee. I am older and had knee surgery over 40 years ago for cyst on my knees. ( The surgery was quite invasive as the cyst had grown on part of the meniscus) Now I am feeling some severe pains at times that may just be arthritis but it feels worse to me. I was also just given an X-ray. On the other hand I am lucky this has not had a financial and career impact on me. Have you filled out you FAFSA and seen if you can get any grants? This time of inability to work and recuperation should be a perfect time to finish up your degree.

As for the law suit, I have been involved in 2 one was when I was a teenager and was hit crossing the street after getting off a bus. My parents really did that suit and it was partly to recoup their expenses and partly to cover complications I would have down the road. By the time the suit was settled between paying doctors who testified and court and filing cost my parents ended up owing the lawyer $50. after the lawyer took 1/3 of the settlement I ended up with a big $3000 in trust. Of course this was back in the 70's but even then $300 was not a windfall. About 10 years ago I was driving during rush hour traffic and the person 3 cars ahead of me slammed on the breaks for an unknown reason. I stopped as did the 2 cars in front of me. The full size business van behind me did not he hit me hard almost at full speed. He hit so hard he pushed me into the car in front of me and them into the car in front of them. Of course the guy who slammed on the breaks was gone by then. I was having back pain before I left the scene but it was my sons 16th birthday so I refused to go to the hospital. I picked up my sons cake then went to a parent teacher conference where it was so obvious I was in pain the teacher insisted on finding some Ibuprofen for me. I ended up having my husband take me to the ER and getting an MRI. All they could see was some possible soft tissue inflamation. I was given pain pills and physical therapy but it took a long time(many months) for the pain to go away. I lived in NJ where there is no fault insurance so I would not be able to sue unless I had extensive medical bills or the culprit was a business. As it turned out I never did talk to the person who hit me he stayed in his van. All of the other drivers and passengers got out and checked on each other. One person even told the police he had checked and I had come to a complete stop before the accident. So i decided to sue because of my pain and suffering and the medical bills that were not paid because of deductibles and co-pays. The lawyers I used were well know for their work in personal injury lawsuits. They felt it was a worth while case and proceeded. They originally thought the company would offer a settlement. It turned out the Company was just a Mom & Pop repair company and it was their young son driving the van. I never got to meet him because he was away at school so could not be deposition-ed in person. The company fought me tooth and nail refusing to even make an offer for settlement or listen to our offers. They waited until the day of the court case and then offered what I had requested months earlier. Since it was the day of court and all of the doctors were already there I had to pay them even though they never had to testify. By the time Dr.'s got ~$350 each and the court fees were paid and the lawyers got their 33% I ended up with about $7000. Which just about paid for my Dr. Bills and the time lost from work.

So unless you have a really good case and can find another 2 Dr.'s who say the 1st Dr. was libel you will have a long aggravating process ahead of you with little return on investment.

[LaterBloomer]

Two things to take into consideration are that although you will certainly find an attorney who will file suit for you, it doesn't mean you HAVE case. Also, what do juries in your jurisdiction do? Some areas have juries that will give plaintiffs with hangnails large verdicts, and in other jurisdictions juries won't give you the time of day. (I worked for a court in a jurisdiction like the latter.)

My advice would be to forget court, and focus on a sure thing - your education. Good luck.

[burbuja0512]

I hope you feel better… I agree with LaterBloomer regarding the lawsuit. If you're really curious, you can always get a free consultation with a lawyer that specializes in this area. Believe me, they will get you out of their office quickly if they don't think you have enough evidence.

Years ago, I ended up taking legal action after a car accident.. I REALLY didn't want to, but the insurance company gave me about half of the blue book value of my car, that had been totaled by a reckless driver. At the time, I was a single mom that had just gotten divorced and it meant going from a decent, reliable car, to one that was significantly worse and I didn't have the money to get anything better.

I argued for a long time with the insurance company and asked them to treat me fairly and their final response was that even if their driver was reckless, it was my own problem because getting hit is part of the risk of being on the road and that "I should know better than to expect getting blue book for my car"

Well, I did have some medical problems related to the accident, but wasn't going to do anything because I am very against our culture of excess litigation, but it seemed to be the only way to get my money back from my totaled car. However, I will say that the lawyer I worked with was a SLEAZEBALL. He wanted me to exaggerate the extent of my injuries and would say things like "are you sure that you don't have foggy vision or memory loss?" Anyhow… long story short, I didn't lie about anything and was very honest and it was still a big pain in the butt. It took about 3 years and I had all but forgotten and one day my lawyer called me up with a check for 10k. I had since gotten married and my income was increasing due to job promotions, so the lawsuit didn't help me out of the bad situation, but at the very least, I felt like I was vindicated for my poor treatment, but to be honest, I would probably not go through it again in retrospect. Just too much hassle and I felt very guilty for it regardless of how bad the insurance company was - I felt like I was not "taking the high road."