- Jurisdiction
- Colorado
I am a 50 year old woman who has worked on my feet as a bartender for 35 years. I developed knee pain early in my youth from playing basketball, tennis, racquetball, and running track. Not to mention my many many years of weightlifting in the gym. I mostly worked very high volume clubs, a lot of pivoting and moving like a jog in place for hours every shift about four days a week. At this point it was becoming very painful to finish each shift every night so I decided to see a knee specialist, surgeon. At first we decided to inject steroids block medication in to the knees however, after waiting 6 months they never had any affect. We then decided to injected the Synvisc injection into the knee. That was on August 12th 2016. September 15th I was rushed to the emergency room because I could barely Catch My Breath. And I was having intense migraine headaches for about two or three weeks at that point. They worked with me and a bronchial dilator and I was feeling fine by the time I left but blood work showed my potassium level to be severely low. I went home feeling fine. The next few days I laid on the couch and felt like I had a fever and was just sick, but I've researched this adverse reaction and yes it is common with those who have had adverse reactions. The following Sunday I sat in bed most of the afternoon and watched my knees swell up to my upper thigh and down to my ankle. I went back to the emergency room. I had the worst staff that evening at a very nice hospital that is usually fantastic. They really did nothing for me except be rude and tell me the swelling could not be because of the Synvisc injections 10 minutes after asking what it was to begin with. I then followed up with my doctor the following day who gave me a steroid pill pack to take. I saw my knee surgeons assistant the day after that which was a Tuesday and we were to schedule my draining of a Baker cyst that formed on the back of my knee for the following Friday. And we drained the front side of both knees while I was at the office. During this entire time I was barely getting along using a cane, and my knees were in incredible pain. The baker's cyst drainage on Friday helped minutely but the following Monday I had to return to the doctor because my knees had swollen up again. This time the doctors physician assistants injected more steroid blocks into the knees. It was by far the most painful thing that has ever been done to me medically. I was screaming, and crying pretty much the rest of the day. The physician's assistant fully admitted also that he was sure that this reaction did come from the Synvisc shot since there was absolutely nothing else, no trauma, no accidents, not even falling down that occurred within this time frame. I've done a little research and found that there are others that have been affected adversely from the Synvisc injections. And I do know that the company is well aware of it. I was also not told of any possible adverse reactions. Otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't have had it done. Bottom line over two weeks has gone by after the steroid blocks earlier this week has helped tremendously. I am not using my cane any longer, however I am still having pretty intense pain in my knees and I am pretty frightened at this point since I have no idea how long this will last, whether or not I'll ever be able to go back to work, or just stand in the kitchen long enough to make dinner. I suppose my primary goal now would be to acquire a hefty settlement award payment. But, would this fall under the toxic tort category? I would definitely want to sue the company and I like my doctor but is there medical malpractice here? And what is the best route to search for a toxic tort personal injury lawyer?
