About four years ago, Edna (Didi) Shemesh, about 60 years old, director of the welfare department in a local authority, went to perform an elective neck surgery in a private setting, with the aim of reducing pressure created on her spinal cord, which actually caused her pain and disrupted her quality of life.
In the lawsuit submitted to the District Court in Tel Aviv by attorneys Dr. Avi Rubinstein and Shmuel Yakirvitz of the Rubinstein-Yakirvitz law firm, it is claimed that the surgery she performed led to a serious health condition and disability. In an opinion by Prof. Zvi Rappaport, senior neurosurgeon, director of the neurosurgery department at the former Rabin Medical Center and retired president of the union for neurosurgery, which was attached to the lawsuit, it was stated that immediately after the surgery Paralysis was diagnosed in Edna’s hand and leg. He emphasized that “there is no doubt that during the operation neurological damage occurred that caused Ms. Shemesh’s disability. According to him, she was urgently transferred to the nearby medical center, where she underwent a second operation in order to repair the damage caused by the first operation.
“Severe damage to the spinal cord caused immediate paralysis”
According to Prof. Rappaport’s opinion, in the MRI and CT scans that preceded the surgery, a bone protrusion was clearly visible that protruded into the spinal canal and compressed the spinal cord. According to him, the surgeon should have removed it before fixing the vertebrae – but in practice this was not done at all, and as a result, according to him, severe damage was caused to the spinal cord which caused immediate paralysis in Edna’s hand and leg. According to him, “it is a technical failure that was under the control of the surgeon and exceeds the accepted medical standard”._OB
The professor also claimed that the imaging tests performed after the surgery showed unequivocally that the operations reported by the surgeon in the surgical report (such as, for example, bilateral release of the nerves along all the operated vertebrae) – were not actually performed at all. According to the expert, the MRI examination after the operation clearly demonstrated two new foci in the spinal cord that were damaged during the operation.
“The gap between what was recorded in the analysis report and what was actually carried out raises very serious questions”
In the lawsuit, the lawyers claim medical negligence of the doctor, a specialist in orthopedic surgery, the surgeon who treated Adna as part of private medical services. The gap between what was recorded in the analysis report and what was actually carried out raises very serious questions. The medical system must accept responsibility in such cases. This case highlights the need for complete transparency and stricter control over surgical procedures, in order to ensure that similar cases do not occur in the future.”
“I dedicated my life to the benefit of populations that are in crisis and need assistance, and I have reached a situation where I need close daily assistance,” says Edna painfully. “I went for a routine operation and woke up to a completely different life. All I wanted was to improve the quality of my life, and instead I was left with a severe disability that accompanies me every moment. I find it hard to believe that a senior doctor changed my life like that forever.”
According to the lawsuit, as a result of the injury, Edna was forced to resign from her esteemed position in the welfare department, a position in which she served the public with great dedication for years. Today she faces a new and difficult reality of chronic pain and severe movement limitations. In addition, until that surgery she was active and sporty, and now she now needs help with basic daily activities and lives in a complex medical reality of treatments, rehabilitation and ongoing dealing with the irreversible damage.