Tammy Terry v. Raymond Harron

Tammy Terry sued Dr. Raymond Harron on a medical malpractice negligence claim asserted that Dr. Harron acted below the standard of care in the care and treatment provided by him when he operated on her on December 26, 2002 to remove a lesion in her spine that was causing her tremendous pain. When she awoke after the surgery she could not feel her feet and it took 8 months for her to learn to walk again. She still walks with a cane and has to watch where she places her feet, because she has no sense of where they are in space. She was no longer able to work as an anesthesia technician working at Carilion Health System, and lives on disability. She claimed that Dr. Harron negligently removed a part of her spinal cord. Ms. Terry was referred to Dr. Harron by her family physician on December 16, 2002 because of pain and electric shock type sensations in her chest and legs. Dr. Harron diagnosed that Ms. Terry had a lesion on her spine and recommended surgery to remove pressure from her spinal cord. Harron failed to submit a tissue sample for pathological examination so it was not possible to determine what he actually removed from Ms. Terry's body, which is a departure from the standard of care. Ms. Terry had to undergo a separate surgery to repair a spinal cord fluid leak cause by damage sustained to the dura during the first surgery.

The defenses asserted by Dr. Harron are not available at this time.