Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyers Brooks Cutter and Eric Ratinoff win verdict on behalf of a 22 year old woman who was paralyzed from her chest down after the U.C. Davis Medical Center failed to identify a mass on her spine that appeared in her MRI films. $7.6 million is believed to be one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Sacramento County history.

October 31, 2011

A local jury awarded an Elk Grove woman $7.6 million after a hard won case* fought by Sacramento personal injury attorneys Brooks Cutter, Eric Ratinoff and their legal team at Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff.

In 2003, the young woman was only fourteen years old when she was admitted at U.C. Davis Medical Center for weakness in her legs. An MRI study was done that showed an abnormal mass in her thoracic spine, but the radiology department at U.C. Davis Medical Center reported the woman's spine as "normal." As a result, treating doctors at U.C. Davis Medical Center diagnosed her with Guillain Barre Syndrome, and she was discharged from the hospital after a week of treatment for that condition.

Unidentified and untreated for over four years, the mass eventually bled out and caused a permanent spinal cord injury in February 2008, when the woman was 18. As a result, the woman was rendered a paraplegic from the chest down, requiring medical and attendant care for the rest of her life.