The malpractice claims against chiropractors are falling into four different categories. 1. Patient Comes into the Chiropractor Without Clear Stroke Symptoms. Chiropractor Adjusts. Stroke Symptoms Occur After Some Time Passes. In these cases, a patient receives chiropractic care and does not have any immediate negative reaction. Then, hours, days or weeks later, the patient experiences stroke symptoms and is diagnosed with a stroke. Some hospitals are asking patients who have been diagnosed with strokes whether they’ve received chiropractic care in the last month. If the patients have received chiropractic care, the hospital doctors will say that the chiropractic care caused the stroke, even if the stroke occurred well after the chiropractic treatment. These malpractices cases are typically very defensible, especially when there is a signed Informed Consent. 2. Patient Comes Into the Chiropractor Without Clear Stroke Symptoms. Chiropractor Adjusts. Stroke Symptoms Occur Immediately After. Chiropractor Recognizes Stroke Symptoms And Calls 911. In these cases, a patient comes in for chiropractic care without any clear signs or symptoms of stroke. The chiropractor will then perform a standard, non-negligent neck adjustment. The patient will then experience stroke symptoms immediately on the chiropractic table, often dizziness or vomiting. Recent literature suggests that while the chiropractor performed the neck adjustment correctly, the patient, often because of an existing birth defect or health condition, experiences an arterial dissection. Informed Consent is extremely important in these cases, because then the patient was warned that this could happen, even if the chiropractor performed the adjustment correctly. When the chiropractor recognizes the stroke symptoms and promptly calls 911 and gets the patient to the hospital, these cases are defensible when there is a signed Informed Consent warning of the stroke risk. 3. Patient Comes Into the Chiropractor Without Clear Stroke Symptoms. Chiropractor Adjusts. Stroke Symptoms Occur. Chiropractor Adjusts Again. In these cases, a patient comes in for chiropractic care without any clear signs or symptoms of stroke. The chiropractor will then perform a standard, non-negligent neck adjustment. The patient will then experience stroke symptoms immediately on the chiropractic table, often dizziness or vomiting. The chiropractor then fails to recognize the symptoms the patient is experiencing as stroke symptoms. Then, the chiropractor sends the patient home rather than calling 911 and the time period to administer stroke medications passes. Even worse, in some cases, the chiropractor adjusts the neck again to try to correct the problem. These cases are very hard to defend. While the initial adjustment was probably not negligent, readjusting again or failing to recognize the stroke symptoms is hard to defend. Also, the patients in these claims tend to have more serious long-term disabilities, especially if the patient did not receive stroke medication in time. 4. Patient Comes Into Chiropractic Office Already Experiencing Stroke Symptoms. Chiropractor Adjusts. Stroke Symptoms Worsen.
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