Residents in Youngstown, Ohio, often watch their favorite sports stars on the television and elevate them to a god-like status. Often, individuals forget that our favorite sports stars aren’t gods, but rather they are humans with human medical issues. As humans they are just as susceptible to doctor’s errors as the rest of us.

One such mortal is Boston Red Sox relief pitcher, Bobby Jenks. Jenks was scheduled to have back surgery when things went horribly wrong because of a doctor error.

The spinal decompression surgery was scheduled to remove two of four spurs that sat on Jenks’ spine. After doctors removed two, they began to remove a third but then stopped. This left a serrated edge which caused several lacerations, which resulted in a leak of Jenks’ cerebrospinal fluid.

This leak led to severe headaches, a nasty infection in Jenks’ spine and a second emergency surgery to correct the mistake. Had the second surgery not been conducted the infection could have potentially spread to Jenks’ brain — possibly causing death. The surgery reportedly resulted in a very painful recovery.

The frightening thing about our sports heroes suffering from conditions like Jenks, is that they have the best medical help money can buy. How susceptible are the rest of us — the average Joe — to these types of errors?

If a person in the Ohio area believes that they have been subjected to a doctor’s error, they would do well to consult with experienced legal counsel that has the capability to fight for the affected individual’s just compensation.

Source: Boston.com, “Jenks: Error was made in surgery,” Peter Abraham, Feb. 24, 2012