Physician to Pay $4.6M for Nerve Damage following In-Office Procedure

​A primary care physician who allegedly severed a nerve in a patient's neck during an in-office procedure intended to remove a cyst has been found negligent by a Pennsylvania jury and ordered to pay $4.6 million, according to a report from the February 2015 issue of Zarin's Medical Liability Alert (subscription required). When the patient visited his primary care physician with concerns about a lump on his neck, the physician allegedly told the patient that it was either a cyst or a boil and that it could be removed during a simple office procedure. Weeks after the patient underwent the procedure, he noticed weakness and limited motion in his left arm. The patient returned to his primary care physician, who treated him over the next few months with naproxen because the physician believed that the patient had sustained a cervical sprain at his job, which required extensive physical labor. Nearly one year after the procedure, the patient returned to the practice with complaints of pain and weakness in his neck and left arm, and he was seen by a different physician.