A tumor is a mass of tissue resulting from an abnormal growth of cells. These tissues grow into different shapes and sizes in the body, and they are either benign or malignant. Tumors are not meant to be natural habitats in the body, and their continuous presence in it can be dangerous. They can cause bodily pain and affect the internal composition of the body, including bones, skin, tissue, organs, and glands. One of the organs that can be affected by the presence of a tumor is the spine causing a condition known as spinal tumor or tumor of the spine.
What Is A Spinal Tumor?
Simply put, a spinal tumor refers to the abnormal growth of a cell leading to a mass of tissue within or surrounding the spinal column.
The spinal column, which is made up of vertebrae and thousands of nerves attached to it, fitting tightly in a space running from the base of a person’s skull to the lower back, can be affected by this abnormal growth. An unexpected cell growth in this space can be very disruptive and affect any region of the spinal column causing pain, numbness, and sometimes paralysis, amongst other neurological problems.
The growth of the tumor can be inside the spinal cord or around the nerve roots shooting out of the spinal cord. Whichever position the tumor is growing, it’s not a visitor the body needs.
How Is A Spinal Tumor Treated?
No matter the location or size of the tumor, the main aim of any treatment is to get it removed or shrink its size.
This can be done using different methods, including surgery, targeted drug therapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Each patient’s case and diagnosis is unique, and the onus lies on the physician to suggest the best approach a patient can follow to treat a tumor of the spine.
However, in some cases, these physicians are charged with failing in their primary duty of care to properly diagnose and treat this condition appropriately, leading to a claim of spinal tumor medical malpractice.
Handling A Spinal Tumor Medical Malpractice Case
Courts in the United States have seen a plethora of cases relating to a misdiagnosis of spinal tumors and errors during spinal tumor surgery.
An example of such a case is Russell v. Subbiah. In this case, the defendant, a surgeon, was charged with negligence for misdiagnosis of the plaintiff’s spinal cord tumor resulting in delayed treatment and ultimately increased injury to the plaintiff’s right leg.
In a case with similar scenarios, the mantle is on the attorney to showcase how the negligence act of the physician has caused harm to the plaintiff.
An attorney seeking to prove this can do that in different ways, and one of the best ways to showcase that is to illustrate the gravity of the condition using medical animation.
Medical Animation To The Rescue
Various circumstances can surround a spinal cord tumor malpractice case. An attorney may need to prove and showcase that failure to diagnose and detect a spinal tumor has resulted in medical issues. They may need to point out the damage a delayed surgery or treatment of a detected spinal tumor has caused to a victim. In another case entirely, they may need to affirm how an error during surgery caused injury and pain to a patient.
All these scenarios can be best illustrated using a medical animation in the courtroom.
With the animation, the growth of the tumor along the different regions of the spine can be illustrated. The location of the spine can be clearly shown to the jury, and its resultant effect, including pain and numbness in some parts of the body, can also be illustrated.
Proper spinal tumor surgery can be illustrated using medical animation. The right way to perform the surgery can be showcased to the jury, and in a case where the surgeon performing the procedure committed an error leading to a rupture of the tumor, this can also be shown to the jury.
In conclusion, an attorney who would love to drive home their argument and make the jury understand the gravity of the malpractice should use medical animation. This is because it is created based on facts of the case coupled with the opinions of expert witnesses. It cannot just be created out of the blue; an attorney, in collaboration with expert witnesses and a credible legal animation company, will work together to create a befitting spinal cord tumor surgery animation to support their argument and the testimony of expert witnesses.
