How Improper Patient Positioning Causes Spinal Cord Injuries

There are many aspects of patient care that require careful consideration, both during trauma situations and during patient surgeries. Patient positioning is a crucial aspect of patient care that cannot be overlooked. Failing to properly position a patient can result in serious harm, including spinal cord injuries, sometimes with permanent paralysis as a result.

Victims and families affected by positioning errors may have legal options with the help of an experienced Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer who understands how failures in basic patient safety lead to devastating outcomes.

How Do Positioning Errors Cause Spinal Cord Injuries to Emergency Injury Patients?

After an accident, paramedics must carefully position the patient’s back and spine to stabilize it in a neutral position. If the accident caused fractured discs in the spine, failure to properly position the spine can result in shards of broken bone damaging or severing the spinal cord, resulting in paralysis and lack of sensation below the level of the injury.

Paramedics are highly trained to use methods recognized by the medical community as the standard of care, such as the Haines Recovery Method, to secure the spine during transportation and protect the spinal cord from injury.

How Does Improper Surgical Positioning Cause Spinal Cord Injuries?

Surgical positioning errors occur when medical providers improperly position a patient for surgery or fail to adequately support them during the procedure. Common patient positions for surgery include the following:

• Supine position, or flat on the back
• Prone position or lying face down
• Lateral position, or lying on the side
• Lithotomy position, or lying on the back with legs apart and raised
• Trendelenburg position with the head lower than the feet

Each of the above positions entails potential risks, including spinal cord injury when improperly executed or inadequately monitored. Unconscious patients undergoing surgery are completely incapacitated and unable to express feelings of pain or discomfort, including warning signals of a misaligned spine. Failure to properly position a patient can result in injuries; for example, improper positioning of the neck can cause peripheral nerve injury to the spinal cord or to the brachial plexus, which extends from the spinal cord to the shoulder and upper arm.

Compression of the spinal cord due to improper patient positioning, such as extreme neck flexion from the chin to the chest or extreme neck extension. These improper positioning injuries to the spinal cord sometimes occur during intubation.

Understanding the Duty of Care In Positioning an Incapacitated Patient

All medical providers have a legal obligation to patients in their care. This includes paramedics, who position accident victims to stabilize the spinal column and prevent spinal cord injury; surgical teams during surgery; and caregivers of immobile or incapacitated patients. This is part of a medical provider’s legal duty to treat patients at the level of care accepted as the standard of the medical community. If a medical provider breaches their duty of care and the result is injury, the injured person has the right to compensation for their damages.

Damages in spinal cord injury cases are often extensive, including lifelong disability with impacts on earning ability as well as medical care, assistive equipment, and compensation for diminished quality of life. 

Finally, prolonged, unrelieved pressure on the neck and back structures during long surgeries can cause inflammation and necrosis of nerve tissue in the spinal cord.