Bilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis After C-Spine Surgery

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A 67-year-old man was riding his bike along the road when he hit a sewer grate and went over the bars. He sustained a traumatic C-spine injury, with imaging revealing central canal stenosis and cord compression.

He was booked for a posterior cervical decompression and fusion of C5-C7 with supplemented anterior cervical discectomy and fusion of C5-C7.

The surgery took almost 9 hours. Post operatively he was brought to the ICU intubated with vent weaning over the next several days.

At extubation he was found to have aphonia due to bilateral vocal cord paralysis.

The aphonia persisted.

He hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit.

He sued the neurosurgeon, anesthesiologist, and ICU physician.

The following injuries were laid out.

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