Paul v. Dr. Ho - Following a two-week trial in Brooklyn, Supreme Court, a jury awarded a 7.9 million dollar verdict to our client and found that a neurosurgeon negligently performed an anterior cervical decompression, vertebrectomy and fusion with iliac crest bone graft, plating and screws. In addition to finding that the doctor performed a substandard back surgery, the jury also found that the neurosurgeon failed to obtain the patient's informed consent for the surgery. The plaintiff, then age 61, had been diagnosed with severe cervical spondylytic myelopathy but had been working full-time as a machinist. Upon waking from the surgery, our client was unable to move his left leg and his left hand (a condition known as hemiparesis). Because the fusion had failed, four weeks after the operation another neurosurgeon had to complete the decompression and replace the bone graft, plate and screws. The second neurosurgeon stated in his operative report that a very poor decompression had been performed and that the bone plug (which was too short) had shifted onto the thecal sac of the spinal cord. The plaintiff has never recovered from hemiparesis and remains dependent on a walker or wheelchair to ambulate. He is totally disabled from any employment.