Jury Awards $1.1M to Victim of Severely Debilitating Condition Caused by Podiatrist
Gentry Locke for the Plaintiff
Roanoke County Court
Our client had foot pain and went to a podiatrist. A general rule of podiatry is that a podiatrist must never inject a broken foot because it can cause a permanent and severely debilitating condition known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (“RSD”), which is now known as complex regional pain syndrome (“CRPS”). The podiatrist assumed that our client’s foot was not broken, even though she had many signs and symptoms of a broken foot, and injected it. A couple of weeks later our client returned to the podiatrist with a foot that was even more painful. Again, the podiatrist assumed that our client’s foot was not broken, even though she had many signs and symptoms of a broken foot, and injected it. Shortly thereafter, our client went to another podiatrist who diagnosed her foot as being broken and discovered that she had developed RSD/CRPS as a result of the prior podiatrist’s injections.
The prior podiatrist’s insurance company refused to accept responsibility for his malpractice, even though the podiatrist wanted the case settled. As a result, our client was forced to go to Court. The Court found that our client’s case had merit to proceed to the jury. The jury of seven individuals from Roanoke County heard five days of evidence and unanimously decided in favor of our client awarding her compensation in the amount of $1.1 million.
Jury awards $1.1 million compensation to our client.