Archive photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
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By Jonas Labrenz
Heidelberg. During the operation of a supposed sarcoma – a malignant tumor – a doctor at Heidelberg University Hospital made a gross treatment error. That was decided by the 4th Civil Chamber of the Heidelberg Regional Court seven years after the operation. In addition, the patient was not properly informed.
The 54-year-old’s leg has been paralyzed since then, he is in pain, can no longer drive a car, needs help with housekeeping and has not been able to start a job. He now lives on Hartz IV and suffers from depression. The patient is therefore not only entitled to 100,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering, the hospital’s insurance company must also pay for all material damage – his lawyer, Malte Oehlschläger, puts it at 1.5 million euros.
It all started when the patient went to the doctor in January 2014 for pain in the kidney area. There the doctor discovered a so-called mass in the pelvic muscles of the then 47-year-old. So something was emerging that shouldn’t be there. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in May confirmed the suspicion. The man’s family doctor immediately referred him to the clinic for general, visceral and transplant surgery at the university clinic. There the patient was informed that the doctors suspected a sarcoma. This is a rare malignant tumor that grows and spreads quickly. The operation should take place the next day.
The surgeon removed the tumor and – according to the operation report – a tendon from a pelvic muscle. A few hours after the operation, the patient is supposed to get up with the help of a nurse, the right leg bends away and there is no feeling in the thigh. The doctors initially suspect that the anesthesia or the pain catheter are the reason for this. But the feeling does not return. The next day, a neurologist finds that the femoral nerve, a nerve to the thigh, has been injured. The examination of the removed tumor also shows that it was not a sarcoma, but a schwannoma, i.e. a benign, slowly growing tumor that would not have required immediate surgery.
After an operation to restore the nerve in October 2014 did not bring any improvement, the patient took a lawyer. Two reports by the medical service of the health insurance companies from June and August 2015 were in favor of the man. Negotiations with the university hospital’s insurance company followed. When it became clear three years later that an agreement could not be reached, lawyer Oehlschläger prepared the trial and filed a lawsuit with the Heidelberg district court at the beginning of 2019. After another expert opinion, which was obtained by the court and which also turned out to be in favor of the plaintiff, and a hearing with expert hearings, the court proposed a settlement: the insurance company should pay 990,000 euros, then everything would be done. The fact that the court moderated here is rare in such proceedings: “The regional court did a really good job there,” said Oehlschläger. However, the proposal was too small for the plaintiffs, so that the court ultimately had to judge. Almost exactly seven years to the day after the operation, the judges agreed with the patient on all points. It took a good two years from the lawsuit to the verdict: “That was very quick here,” says Oehlschläger. It also happens that such lawsuits are pending ten years before a decision can be made.
The judges noted that there were two serious mistakes here before and during the operation: firstly, the patient was not correctly informed about the possible consequences of the operation, and secondly, the doctor should not have mistaken the nerve for a tendon. That is a gross malpractice. The judges did not criticize the fact that it was a schwannoma instead of a sarcoma. When making the diagnosis, everything went according to the rules of medical art.
However, Oehlschläger and his client have not yet reached their destination. Now you have to agree on an amount with the insurance company. “Otherwise there will be the next trial,” explains the lawyer.
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