Chiropractic Malpractice

Chiropractic is known as an alternative health care which may offer many therapeutic benefits to consumers. Chiropractors, or Doctors of Chiropractic (DC), administer health care called chiropractic, which is also known as spinal manipulation therapy.

There are instances in which chiropractic care, however, like other forms of medicine, can have serious adverse consequences.

Chiropractor Malpractice

There are three main types of chiropractic malpractice:

• Failure to diagnose conditions that require timely medical attention
  
• • Example:  Consider the situation in which a consumer consults a chiropractor for pain in his or her chest. The chiropractor may indicate that nerve pressure from a spinal subluxation may be the cause of the pain. The pain, however, may have been caused by a heart attack, requiring immediate hospitalization.  The failure to diagnose the true condition in this example can result in brain damage (due to lack of blood flow, and thus the transport of oxygen, to the brain) or death.
    
    
• Damage from manipulation of body parts that may have been weakened by disease or previous trauma, including herniated discs, stroke, and fractured bones.
  
• • Example 1: Consider the situation in which a consumer undergoes chiropractic treatment in which the Doctor of Chiropractic manipulates the patient's spine and causes a ruptured disc requiring surgery.
  • Example 2: High Velocity Upper Cervical Manipulation (HVUCM) is high-velocity neck manipulation, or sudden twist of the neck, causes a dissection or tear in the vertebral or carotid artery that clots and leads to a stroke. High velocity upper cervical manipulation is a widely used chiropractic therapy that can cause stroke by tearing or kinking the inside (intima) of the vertebral and/or carotid arteries which in turn causes clots to form that break off and shoot into the brain.
  • • The injuries can range from mild cognitive deficits to quadriplegia (locked-in syndrome), paralysis, paresis (weakness), or death. The injuries most strongly associated with chiropractic malpractice are brain traumas due to vascular injury.
      
      
• Informed consent.
• • Example: Lack of informed consent describes some of the types of problems that a chiropractor will treat. It also describe the various risks associated with planned treatment.  Common risks associated with chiropractic treatment include stroke, vascular injury, herniated disc, broken ribs, and general soreness.

Personal injury and wrongful death cases caused by chiropractic malpractice can be very complex. Proving fault requires critical review analysis and review of the key evidence, not only by the attorney, but by appropriate experts.

If you or your loved one has suffered a permanent, devastating, injury or death in the family caused by chiropractic malpractice, then please contact us to seek justice on your behalf. There is no obligation, and we provide a candid assessment of your claim.

At Harris Law Firm PA, personal injury law firm and consumer law firm, we're here to help.  We proudly serve deserving clients and their families who are seeking to overcome the challenges of serious personal injury and wrongful death throughout Florida and beyond in other States.

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We provide aggressive, prompt, and ethical advocacy on behalf of individuals and families who have suffered serious personal injury, accident injury, and wrongful death. Contact us today.