By Kyle Barnett
GRETNA – A local hospital and a group of doctors are being sued for allegedly misdiagnosing the source of man’s leg weakness and performing a spinal surgery on him when other less invasive options should have been available.
Phyllis Price Thurston and John L. Thurston filed suit against Louis J. Provenza, Richard J. Schunior, Laurie Bishop and Ochsner Clinic Foundation in the 24th Judicial District Court on March 5.
Thurston claims her husband began experiencing leg weakness and subsequent falls in April 2011 for which he underwent an MRI of his lumbar spine and was told he would need to undergo spinal surgery to correct the problem which was undertaken on May 24, 2011. However, the plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to properly examine her husband and at no time did they properly diagnose a syrinx, a fluid filled cavity in his spinal cord, that was actually the cause of his weakness and other symptoms.
