Former Athlete, 19, Sues Kennestone Hospital For Malpractice

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — Former high school student athlete Damien Robinson began to feel chest pain, weakness, sensory loss and numbness in his feet, so he went to the emergency department of WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. But a medical malpractice lawsuit claims that doctors misdiagnosed his spinal cord injury as a psychiatric problem that left Robinson paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair to move.

According to a lawsuit filed in DeKalb County, Robinson first experienced the symptoms between 6 and 12 hours before he went to the hospital. Doctors began to check him around 1:45 a.m. on March 6, 2018, court documents said.

Robinson’s condition worsened because of the hospital’s negligence, specifically a failure to perform the correct type of MRI to check for spinal cord problems, his lawsuit says. Doctors should have considered that a previously healthy 18-year-old who was rapidly losing feeling and function in his lower extremities was suffering from transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord which interrupts the messages nerves send throughout the body.

According to the complaint, Robinson is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, as well as damages for medical costs and other damages including physical, economic and emotional injuries. The lawsuit also seeks legal fees.

The Paulding County resident, who is now a student at Georgia Southern University, secured Bell Law Firm, which focuses on victims of medical malpractice.

“This was a very young, able-bodied athletic man,” attorney Lloyd Bell said in an interview with Patch. “He had a very treatable condition if it had been timely diagnosed. And it was not. Strangely, they just rushed to judgment and concluded that it was all in his head and that it was a psychiatric problem.”

The transverse myelitis damaged Robinson’s spinal cord permanently, Bell said.

WellStar Health System emailed a statement to Patch disputing the malpractice claim but declining to address the specific allegations made.

“WellStar is committed to delivering high quality, personalized and compassionate healthcare to patients throughout the communities we serve,” the WellStar statement said. “WellStar disputes the allegations in this complaint. However, to protect patient privacy rights and because this story involves a pending lawsuit, we are not able to further comment on the details of this case.”

Prior to that visit, Robinson had no previous health conditions or concerns. The symptoms that led him to go to Kennestone that day came out of nowhere, Bell said.

Doctors can usually treat transverse myelitis simply by giving the patient high-dose steroids for the inflammation. If treated promptly, symptoms generally subside, leaving no permanent injury.

In Robinson’s case, the doctors didn’t properly investigate the symptoms, instead misdiagnosing him as having a psychiatric problem called Conversion Disorder, the lawsuit claims. It’s when “the brain manufactures what appear to be spinal, neurological symptoms but which do not arise from physical problems in the spinal cord.”

According to the lawsuit, “Conversion disorder can only be diagnosed when all physical causes have been ruled out.”

Aside from helping his client win, Bell said also wants to raise awareness on the risk of malpractice and misdiagnosis when experiencing neurological symptoms.

“The days of just trusting your doctor and not asking questions, believing they’re going to do the right thing, those days are gone,” said Bell. “Patients really need to be their own advocates.”