Malpractice

Here is the chain of events. My son is now 17, soon to be 18 on September 5. When he was a kid, he's not sure when, possibly when he was in fifth grade, approximately 2018, he was playing ball and a ball hit his left ring finger and bent it backwards. At the time I did not realize the severity of the injury and did not splint it or go to the doctor. After that he was able to bend the tip of his finger in a way that's not usual and not able to bend it the usual way. I think it felt out of place. This is based on my son's description. It was just a nuisance at times. Eventually a few years later he said he wants surgery, he wants to fix it. As far as I understood, it was not painful, just uncomfortable sometimes and the idea bothered him that it wasn't right. So in June 2021 we went to see Dr Eidelstein, an orthopedic surgeon, a finger specialist and part of Maimonides. He looked at his finger and seeing part of it was slightly swollen, he immediately said he wants to do a biopsy. My husband and I were skeptical. Why would he want to do a biopsy on a finger on an injured finger. He did take a CT scan. He said he wants to take another CT scan after the summer to see if anything changes. We did not go back to him. We went for a second opinion to Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser at Columbia Presbyterian hospital, a top doctor in the country, recommended by a Jewish referral agency. The agency and everyone else still considers him to be the top doctor in his field and they have the best experiences with him. We saw him at the clinic. He took one look at his finger and called it a swan neck injury and told us if we want to fix it, we need to do surgery so we agreed to the surgery. We did give him the CT scan written report which I can see now since I have a copy, that there was a bone lesion in his finger. I see the interpretation of the CT scan at Columbia is a little different than the original report from Lenox Hill where the CT scan was performed. They both describe the lesion although not exactly the same but the Columbia interpretation says swan neck deformity while the original report from lenox hill does not mention a swan neck deformity. After the surgery on November 24, 2021 with Dr Rosenwasser at Columbia, my son's finger was worse than it was before. Even after months of occupational therapy, his finger was and still is swollen, painful when squeezed or when applying pressure, when carrying bags, shaking hands hard with someone, very sensitive and he cannot make a full fist. All of these symptoms were not present before the sugery. I kept telling Dr Rosenwasser that something is wrong. He took 2 xrays a week apart on January 5 and 12. The reports say bones demineralized, erosive changes, deformity. The doctor said everything is fine, the way it's supposed to be. Surgery was successful, finger is normal. Just need occupational therapy to reduce the swelling and to have full range of motion and strength of the finger. He recommended a specific occupational therapist trained for the finger that was affiliated with the hospital. My son saw the therapist every week for about 7 months and did the exercises at home. My son was able to regain movement with his finger but not 100 percent, the way it was before the surgery. About 2 years ago, we did consult with another orthopedist who said she will not do anything and that we would have to go back to Dr Rosenwasser. We did not because Dr Rosenwasser said everything was fine. Recently we decided to seek another orthopedic surgeon to see what they would say. We saw Dr Benjamin Berenfeld at Montefiore on July 2, 2025. He took an xray and saw a bone lesion and a hole in the bone as a result of the lesion. He was baffled. He told me to bring all the reports from before, during and after the surgery and to get an MRI. We did and it shows a benign tumor on the outside and inside of the bone and that it was there before the surgery but grew after the surgery. Dr Berenfeld said my son needs surgery to remove the tumor. I said I want a second opinion because of what happened last time. He referred me to his colleague Dr David Geller, a tumor specialist at the same hospital in Montefiore. We just saw Dr Geller this past Monday, July 21, 2025. Dr Geller explained everything in great detail of what is now and what is expected in the surgery. He said that he plans to remove the entire tumor however, they will perform a biopsy during the surgery to determine the nature of the tumor and if it is benign, will proceed to remove the entire tumor. If chas veshalom otherwise, they probably won't remove it then because they will have to find out more in order to know exactly what to do before they remove it. Also the bone needs grafting since the tumor eroded the bone. The doctor hopes the tumor is benign and that he can repair the bone and save the finger. After the surgery for about the first year while we were still seeing Dr Rosenwasser for followups, I was so upset, worried about my son's finger and frankly angry at the doctor for making my son's finger worse than it was and for not addressing the results of the xrays after the surgery. Now that I see that the doctor saw the lesion before the surgery, during the surgery and after the surgery and did not address it and told me everything was fine really upsets me and even more so, now the lesion has grown and he needs another surgery to remove it. And we don't even know what it is. Had he addressed the problem even after the surgery, I would deal with it but he just denied it and did not tell me that it needed to be checked out.

Thank you for your question.

 I understand your frustration. However, could you please clarify what your Halachic question is, that you would like us to address?