Paul M. da Costa Secures $2 Million Settlement in a Failure to Timely Diagnose Plasmacytoma Case

Plaintiff, a 71 year-old male, alleged that the Defendant physician deviated from accepted standards of pain management care and treatment.  Specifically, Plaintiff claimed that his lower extremity weakness, and lumbar MRI findings of diffuse abnormal bone marrow signal, on February 12, 2020 required that the Defendant refer him to a neurosurgeon or orthopedic spine surgeon for further workup and a stat MRI of the Plaintiff’s thoracic spine.  Plaintiff alleged that had an MRI of the thoracic spine been performed, it would have revealed that Plaintiff’s pre-existing condition of monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) had caused a plasmacytoma to arise in the thoracic spine.  In addition, Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant deviated from accepted standards of care when he performed intra-articular facet injections on March 9, 2020, at which time the Defendant neither assessed the Plaintiff’s lower extremity weakness nor did he follow-up to find out if Plaintiff had seen any other medical providers regarding the abnormal lumbar MRI findings from February 12, 2020.  To that end, the Defendant documented in the Plaintiff’s chart on February 20, 2020 that he recommended the Plaintiff see his oncologist and primary care physician regarding the lumbar MRI results.  As a result of Defendant’s deviations, Plaintiff alleged that there was a failure to timely diagnose the plasmacytoma on his thoracic spine, which was allowed to continue to grow and ultimately cause spinal cord compression.  The spinal cord compression ended up causing the Plaintiff to be rendered a parapalegic.