‘Routine’ knee surgery led to amputation, $5M lawsuit
Skiing injury turned into nightmare for Hazar Nejmeh, suit alleges
After injuring her knee while skiing in the Laurentians, Hazar Nejmeh decided to have her torn ACL repaired at the Verdun Hospital. She had tried physiotherapy first, but it had become clear it wouldn’t be enough.
Nejmeh’s doctor assured her the surgery was a routine medical procedure.
But eight days, several surgeries and severe complications later, a new lawsuit alleges, medical staff were left with no choice: the surgeon had severed an artery behind Nejmeh’s knee and in order to save her life, they needed to amputate her leg.
Nearly three years later, Nejmeh, 41, is suing Dr. Serge Tohmé, who performed the initial surgery, for $5 million, arguing his “professional negligence and imprudence” have forever altered her life and ability to raise her three children.
“This is an absolute tragedy and a horrible, horrible outcome for something that was supposed to be a routine surgery,” said Arthur Wechsler, a lawyer with Kugler Kandestin, the firm behind the suit.
“We feel very strongly the physician did not meet the standards of the trade.”
The CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-del’Île-de-Montréal, which oversees the hospital, said it could not comment on the matter since it could end up in court. A spokesperson said Tohmé, who could not be reached for comment, is still practising at the hospital.
According to the lawsuit, Nejmeh and her husband moved to Quebec from Syria in 2012.
Hoping to continue working as an engineer, Nejmeh enrolled in a francization program to learn the language and be able to pass the required engineering exams in Quebec.
The ski trip in the Laurentians was an outing organized by the program. Nejmeh had never been skiing before.
She injured her knee while making a sudden movement.
The surgery to repair her ligament took place on the morning of Aug. 9, 2016.
Transferred to the day surgery recovery unit afterward, the suit says, Nejmeh immediately started complaining that something seemed wrong: she felt an unbearable pain right below her knee, a burning sensation in her foot and could not move her leg.
After being informed of her complaints, the suit alleges Tohmé ensured Nejmeh everything went well and he did not feel the need to perform any tests. When the pain continued into the evening, Tohmé decided to perform a second surgery after diagnosing a “compartment syndrome.”
“Following the fasciotomy surgery, back in the recovery room, (Nejmeh) continued to bleed profusely,” the suit says.
Around 11 that night, the doctor consulted with a vascular surgeon, who determined they needed to operate again to try to stop the bleeding. During that surgery, the suit says, they discovered Tohmé had severed Nejmeh’s popliteal artery, “most likely during the ACL surgery.”
Nejmeh fell into a prolonged cardiopulmonary arrest during the third surgery, the suit says, and other complications put her “overall health in an extremely precarious situation.”
“In fact,” it says, “she was at risk of death.”
Three days after the initial surgery, Nejmeh was transferred to Hotel-Dieu hospital. She was placed in an artificially induced coma after a fourth and fifth surgery to repair the artery. It was then decided it was necessary to amputate her leg above the knee.
In all, Nejmeh underwent seven surgeries. She was kept in the intensive care unit until mid-September and eventually discharged from the hospital in October.
Based on an expertise report prepared by an orthopedic surgeon, the lawsuit argues that had Tohmé taken Nejmeh’s complaints more seriously, he could have discovered he had severed the artery earlier and the amputation could have been avoided.
The suit is seeking $4.7 million in damages for Nejmeh, $325,00 for her husband and $40,000 for each of the couple’s three children.
Nejmeh can no longer walk, take care of her children or enjoy her life the way she did before the surgery, the suit argues. She continues to have phantom pain that keeps her awake at night. As a result of the complications, she also needed to wear a colostomy bag for a year.
The physical and psychological results have halted her engineering career — “it is unlikely she will ever be gainfully employed,” the suit says — and led to her being severely depressed.
The family lives in a two-storey home that will need to be adapted to her needs. Nejmeh was outfitted with a prosthetic but is struggling to get used to it, the suit says.
Three years after the surgery, she still requires treatment and medication.
As for her children, the suit says, “they continuously watch their mother struggle with her disability and have lost the benefit of an able bodied-parent to raise them.”