A doctor suggested that I switch my form of birth control from Depo-Provera to a paragard copper iud. He didn't do a pelvic exam before insertion. Insertion was terribly painful and I was off work for a week. I had constant pain and couldn't feel the strings that were supposed to be outside my cervix. When I tried to make a follow-up appointment I was told the physician was in Iraq and the ultrasound he did after the procedure (due to the extreme pain I was still having 30 minutes after insertion) showed the iud to be in place. 1 year and 4 months later I became pregnant. The iud could not be located and after several x-rays and ultrasounds I have been told it had perforated my uterus and was in my abdominal cavity and will have to be surgically removed. I was also told iud's should never be recommended for women like myself who have never given birth and who have smaller uteruses due to the use of hormonal birth control. Do I have a malpractice case against the physician that suggested the iud and perforated my uterus when he inserted it?

You may have, but you have to weigh everything in; cost and time and also finding a good lawyer. First though, you must make a preliminary report to (your equivalent) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons as it is called here in Ontario. Make sure you have everything documented and copied.

Hello ix:

We've got a great mal practice lawyer here. He'll be along in a minute.

excon

Do you have a case? Possibly. Is it a good case? That's harder to say. All the things that you mentioned are well-known possible side-effects of having an IUD. One of the difficulties with medicine is that while the company can establish that X% of patients will experience a side-effect, it's almost impossible to figure out if a particular patient is going to be in that group or not. So the doctor can turn around and say that you were advised of the possibility of these complications, and chose to accept that risk.

Bottom line consult an attorney. In a case like this, you should have no trouble finding an atty to give you a free initial consultion. If they decide you have a case, they will, most likely, take it on a contingency basis which means you pay nothing if they don't win and about 1/3 of whatever they do win.

If you are in the states find out what the statue of limitation to bring forth a suit would be. I know Florida has 4 years as an example.
In most all medical negligence cases, you must have expert testimony from a qualified physician, that is willing to testify under oath that the doctor against whom the claim is to be brought deviated from the prevailing standard of care. Regardless of the horrible nature of the injuries and despite how clear it may appear that the physician obviously committed malpractice, none the less are still required to pay large sums, usually thousands of dollars, to the appropriate expert physicians to review the records and be willing to testify against another doctor. Expert witnesses of this nature are often difficult to locate and always very expensive.


Good luck.