So my dad overworked himself two weeks ago. He’s 53 but in overall decent health. He decided to take a bike ride without resting after doing lots of house work, passed out, fell off the bicycle and ground himself up. Broke one side of his jaw, an orbital socket, tore chunks of flesh off his face (which he landed upon – he had no defensive hand/arm wounds so apparently blacked out before, which is what he remembers), the other side of his jaw misaligned, etc. All bodily tests (EEG, EKG, MRI, MRA, some others) turned out negative. The hospital sees nothing about the misalignment. He comes home for a week and goes to the family doctor and dentist a few times, who notice the jaw misalignment. We go to the hospital a few days ago for his surgery to implant a titanium plate over that section of jaw to fix it. The doctors underestimated everything they had to do and cut him open a few extra inches. He bleeds a lot more than expected and keep him overnight. Now that he’s lucid apparently the surgeon(s) cut a facial nerve and the whole right side of his face is immoveable. Eyebrow drooped, mouth drooped, etc. His eye cannot close withot being taped.
As far as I know, they must have severed a nerve to do this sort of damage. And I don’t think that that sort of mistake is ultimately fixable. So Qadgop or other doctors, is this abnormal? Fixable? Anything to help his eye close so he can sleep better?
IANALOD, but this sounds like one of those risks you assume when you consent to surgery. A friend of mine has part of his face permanently numb after a very messy wisdom tooth removal.
First, nerves can grow back to some extent. Next, the nerve may not have necessarily been severed – it could have been bruised or impinged, thus interfering with function. I am not a lawyer or a doctor (yet) either, but I think the case depends on the consent, on it not being a consequence of scarring or reversible with time.
I had some pretty serious jaw surgery 3 years ago and one of the risks (many risks) the doctor outlined to me before the procedure was a chance of permanent numbness.
There is a huge nerve that runs along the jawline and mine was damaged during the surgery. I have numbness along my bottom left jaw, my bottom left lip and top left lip. There are also some weird things that happened…when flossing my back bottom teeth on the right side, I feel pressure on the right side of my tongue.
I’m really sorry about your dad. In my experience, there was a LOT of numbness immediately after the surgery (I was numb up to my lower eyelids) and the majority did gradually fade in the first month.
I think you should go see a malpractice attorney for a free consult and see if you have a case. Your poor dad! I was unable to sleep for 3-4 days because of hallucinations whenever I closed my eyes that was caused by a large blood loss, and I thought I was going to just lose my mind. Not being able to close his eye is very, very serious because he can’t sleep or rest unless he tapes his eye shut. The surgeon may be totally competent and this is just a risk; or he may be an idiot and made a mistake. I would try to find out.
Being both a physician & attorney, I couldn’t say it better than suezeekay. You have to prove negligence-“below the standard of care” ; A signed consent does not mean a consent to malpractice- but a thorough investigation is needed for sure.
A bad outcome does not necessarially mean malpractice.
You’re understandably upset - I would be, too. I imagine your father even more so. There a number of things that could be happening, including a bruised nerve or yes, even a cut one.
IANAD, but I were in your shoes I’d have my dad looked at by an independent doctor (not one of the surgeons’ buddies). And yes, consult a lawyer, but be careful with those, too, especially their fees
I had much, much less extensive face surgery about six years ago. The first surgeon I was referred to wouldn’t operate on me because of the location of the problem and sent me to a different guy who specialized in facial surgery and reconstruction. I was warned that permanent numbness or paralysis was a risk no matter how careful the surgeon was.
Apparently, this sort of thing isn’t unknown. Sounds like your dad has extensive problems, but it would take a doctor looking at him in person to really know what’s happening. I know that in some body locations doctors can rejoin severed nerves (they do that when re-attaching a severed limb, for instance), I don’t know if that works for the facial nerves. It’s certainly worth asking about. It would take a very specialized specialist.
I’m still freaked out that your supposedly healthy dad randomly passed out with no warning. I can’t think of any amount of normal housework that should make a healthy person do that. I’d be more concerned that there is a more serious undiagnosed problem than just the facial nerve.
Id seond the advice about a) getting a second medical opinion, preferably from a different hospital, and b) talking to a medical malpractice lawyer. Most IME don’t charge for a preliminary consultation (I used to work for one) and operate on contingency fees, at least here in IL.
Also, 2 weeks sounds awfully soon to expect a full recovery of all facial movement (although IA definitely NAD) after what sounds like some pretty hardcore surgery. Was this a surgical complication that he was warned about? What is his current doctor saying about his expectations of a full recovery?
I concur with the assessment that the facial nerve may be bruised and not severed to cause partial or full facial paralysis. I’ve had surgery that caused this – the right side of my face from below the eye to my chin was immobile for several weeks before recovering. Talking, eating, and especially smiling was quite difficult.
Also, nerves can be reattached. For your father’s sake, find out what’s wrong medically first before looking for a lawsuit.
We’re working on getting another appointment to see what the problem is, or fix it hopefully. From what I can tell none of the doctors told us about complete half-facial paralyzation immediately after surgery and lasting several days would be a possibility. Of course we’re pursuing getting him better before going to see if this was abnormal. I have very little knowledge of the lawyering stuff, and was unsure if we waited too long and it WAS deemed malpractice, that we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But as nerves can be reattached, or just bruised, hopefully he can be back to normal quickly, or at least closer to normal. I didn’t know about such, or that this was a definite possibility - all the anecdotes mom or her friends or whatever have said were of the line that it was very rare and should never happen. That mis-knowledge is good to have corrected.
Our main concern is his eye, though. It’s extremely dry and we’re having to apply medication to try to keep it from getting injured or infected or too dry (one of dad’s best friends about 10 years back had surgery that resulted in permanent facial paralyzation on half of his face and also could not close his eye, and the guy lost the eye because it was open too much or something, I’m not entirely sure as my parents are in semi-hysterics constantly and unable to explain things well). I don’t presume that anything bad will happen since we have various fake-tear and anti-infection medicine for the eye, though.
Oh, and Eva Luna, he was doing such things as mowing the lawn, emptying the garage of the moving boxes, repairs around the house, vacuuming the house, that sort of thing. Maybe it had to do with his hypothyroidism a little, he sweats profusely at just thinking of doing activities, so maybe he just lost too much fluid on a warm day. We don’t know other than that all the medical tests the hospital performed on him turned out just fine, although they prescribed him high blood pressure medication. He never blacked out before, and if he does again he goes right back to the hospital for re-testing.
All in all, I guess I’ll see come Monday if he has another appointment and what can be done before I start worrying again. And I’ll let mom know that whatever nerve damage may have occurred, it is ultimately fixable it seems, either by itself or invasively. That should calm down the household for a while. I thank you all very much, knowing all this will help greatly. And I’m sorry if I came off a little hasty and grumpy on the OP, it was due to thinking that this whole ordeal was extremely unusual and permanent.
Well, the statute of limitations for filing a personal injury claim in IL is 2 years in most situations. Whatever the issue is, you should have plenty of time to decide what, if anything, to do about it from a legal standpoint. Just make sure everything is well-documented (all advice from doctors, etc.)
Good luck, and try to get everyone to keep a clear head! Dctors do make mistakes; I once spent an extra week plus in the hospital because my idiotic doctor didn’t pay attention to the increased risk of blood clots after a) long and complex leg surgery and associated immobility, and b) while on birth control pills. If I’d asked more questions and been more of a pain in the ass, they might have looked for the clot earlier and saved me that extra week in the hospital and months on anticoagulant drugs. (Not to mention the risk of a pulmonary embolism)
Ask lots of questions, and read up on the medical literature! An educated patient can be a healthier patient.
Just for reference, here is an illustration showing the facial nerves. As you can see, most of them cluster through a spot just below the ear in the parotid gland. If that specific location suffers injury, some or all nerves in the face can be temporarily or permamently damaged. I had surgery on my parotid gland and these nerves getting ‘bruised’ is the reason I had some temporary paralysis.
For even more than you ever wanted to know about facial nerves, see here.
Here is a page that discusses caring for the eye of someone who has a paralyzed eyelid (the site is for Bell’s Palsey sufferers, a virus that can cause facial paralysis in adults).
Here is a “patient’s brochure” that discusses facial paralysis, causes and treatments.
There’s quite a bit more; I just googled “facial paralysis” +eyelid and did some cherrypicking to find the last 3 links in this message.
Toaster, thank god you are there for your parents. I’m getting older and in-between: experiencing the need to be there for my mother (82) and needing my sons to reassure me when there is a crisis. Children are a god-send when one gets older and feel overwhelmed when things like this happen.
I had some teeth extractions and dental implants put in and my chin was numb for several months, but is normal now.
There are things in the future that you probably aren’t thinking about now, but I was forced to a couple of years ago. What will happen if your mother eventually cannot take care of your dad with his health problems and he can’t take care of himself? You will need money to pay someone to come in. My dad died in a nursing home when my mother could no longer care for him. They had to spend thousands of their own money because they were middle income and didn’t qualify for any help. The nursing home, a middle-of-the-road typical awful place, was $56,000 in 2002.
So, if there is possibly a malpractice situation here, you should pursue it to cover any future care. I know you would want your dad to have the best care possible.
Also, about the “fainting”; sometimes older people have impaired cirulation in the brain, like feeling dizzy when sitting up in the morning when they get out of bed. There are also common ear problems that can cause vertigo when the head is turned. Not serious, but unpleasant. For the former, my mother takes Ginko Biloba and found a vast improvement. No more dizziness. The high blood pressure thing can cause headaches and dizziness as well; as well as the medication itself. However, it sounds like this was after the fact in your dad’s case.
I hope everything works out. I know you want to focus on getting the problem hopefully fixed before you concentrate on any possible legal action. I’ll say a prayer for your dad.
i had bell’s palsey for a year following a bad accident with many broken bones, including the one just behind the ear, where the main facial nerve runs. the canal that the nerve runs through was filled with fluid and the nerve was swollen. it took a year, but i am mostly normal now (12 years later).
you can also get bell’s palsey when pregnant.
smiling was the worst part, it was so crooked. and brushing my teeth, cause it all just dribbled out of my mouth.
i wish your dad the best. hopefully, when all the swelling is gone, he’ll be good as new!
Sorry for the delay - things are still a little hectic, of course. squeegee, those were very nice links. Showed 'em to dad and mom and they’re much more relieved now; no more crying or tempers flaring. Dad’s doing much better, and neither of them are pursuing the corrective surgery until it is known that the nerve is severed. The doctor, when confronted with the paralyzation immediately after surgery, apparently got somewhat flustered and said it was an accident and that we should get surgery almost immediately to fix it.
At any rate, we’ll do whatever is needed to see if surgery is necessary before we undertake it. Dad’s blood pressure shot up to 212 when under the anaesthetic, so we’re a little wary of putting him under again before the medicine takes effect or somesuch.
We all appreciate the kind thoughts and advice. Presumably everything will go well now. =)
And I’m sorry if I came off a little hasty and grumpy on the OP, it was due to thinking that this whole ordeal was extremely unusual and permanent.