Orthopedic Surgeons' Failure to Test and Diagnose Leads to $1.1 Million Settlement for 13-Year-Old Patient

A 13-year-old sought treatment from a group of orthopedic surgeons in New York for a musculoskeletal complaint. Rather than ordering the diagnostic tests the clinical presentation called for, the surgeons moved forward without the full picture. That gap in testing led directly to a wrong diagnosis, and the treatment the surgeons applied was shaped by that error.

The harm came from two directions. The child's actual condition went without appropriate intervention while the wrong diagnosis stood. The erroneous treatment the surgeons chose was also not suited to what was really wrong with the patient. At 13, bone development and joint formation are active processes, and orthopedic mismanagement at this stage can produce effects that grow harder to correct as a child moves into adulthood. The family chose to pursue a claim.

They retained Matthew T. Gammons of Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum, P.C., a Manhattan personal injury firm. Gammons organized the case around three distinct failures: the surgeons did not order the diagnostic tests the patient's presentation required, they did not reach the correct diagnosis from the information they did collect, and they proceeded with a treatment plan that did not fit the child's actual condition. New York professional malpractice law holds providers to the standard of care in their specialty. Each of the three failures represented a departure from what orthopedic practice requires, and together they formed a traceable chain from inadequate evaluation through incorrect treatment.

A note on terminology: in New York civil procedure, a minor bringing a claim through a guardian or parent is designated the "infant plaintiff." The label is a legal convention tied to legal capacity and applies to any minor, not only to young children. The case was filed using that caption.

The matter settled in 2019 for $1.1 million. No reduction or remittitur was reported. TopVerdict, the editorial legal-results service, ranked the settlement at a tie for 52nd in New York's top 100 settlements across all categories for that year. The same result appears on TopVerdict's top 50 personal injury settlements list for New York in 2019, ranked at a tie for 45th. The case resolved before trial.