The family of a 13-year-old girl has filed a federal lawsuit against Mayo Clinic and two orthopedic surgeons, alleging they permanently paralyzed the girl after failing to stabilize her spine during surgery.
According to the lawsuit filed by Ashley Barton, the girl's mother, Mayo Clinic, Dr. Peter Rose and Dr. Mohammed Karim, both doctors at Mayo Clinic, owe the family an amount "far exceeding $75,000." The family, which is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, is accusing the defendants of medical malpractice and negligent nondisclosure. The suit was filed Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court.
Mayo Clinic did not respond to a request for comment.
The 13-year-old girl "walked into Mayo Clinic but rolled out in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down" after a three-stage surgery in February 2024, the lawsuit says.
During a routine softball health check, the teenager was diagnosed with scoliosis after a tumor that caused her spine to curve was discovered. In October 2023, Rose recommended three procedures to first remove the intraspinal portion of the tumor, then remove the remainder of the tumor, and finally to correct the girl's scoliosis.
Rose's plan put the girl "at a high risk for spinal instability because of the nature of her spinal abnormality"; however, Rose never documented nor implemented a plan to protect her spinal cord and stabilize her thoracolumbar region, the lawsuit alleges.
Because Rose failed to stabilize the girl's spine during the first two stages of the surgery, the lawsuit alleges that he breached the standard of care, which required him to recognize the instability of her spine and protect her spinal cord from injury related to instability. The lawsuit also accuses the Mayo doctors, with whom Rose consulted, of violating the standard of care by not recommending that Rose create a plan to stabilize the girl's spine.
After the second stage of the surgery on Feb. 10, 2024, the girl began sitting at the edge of her bed when she "felt a pop" and collapsed, the lawsuit says. The girl then lost all feeling in her legs.
The same day, the girl's mother advocated for a CT scan of her spine, which revealed "new disc space widening between the T11 and T12 vertebrae" and a new disruption in the girl's spinal alignment. According to the lawsuit, the CT scan's findings were consistent with acute spinal instability.
Her "neuropathic pain, urinary incontinence, loss of sensation and strength, were consistent with a transient paraparesis ... directly caused by the post-surgical instability of her spine that Dr. Rose had failed to address," the lawsuit alleges.