Dr. Gaylord James Avery II and His “Thoracic Outlet Surgery” Disaster
In March of 2004, a doctor referred her to Dr. G. James Avery II at California Pacific Medical Center. Dr. Avery told Bobbie that she indeed had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and that he could perform a Thoracic Outlet Surgery on her to try to help her condition. He described how he planned to do the procedure, and Bobbie thought he seemed confident and certain of his approach and technique. Finding herself with so few options, since no doctors at any other medical center had even offered to help her or provide a treatment plan for her, Bobbie decided to go ahead with one last surgery to try to improve her condition. This time Medi-Care paid for the surgery.
Sadly, this last surgery was much more brutal than the prior ones. Dr. Avery cut out Bobbie’s first rib completely from front to back, and he took out several neck muscles completely from her neck along with the intricate fat pad that the prior plastic nerve surgeon had constructed. In doing such a radical complex procedure, Dr. Avery accidentally paralyzed Bobbie’s phrenic nerve, which paralyzed her right diaphragm muscle making breathing very difficult. He also damaged the Long Thoracic Nerve making Bobbie’s shoulder blade hang even more loosely than before. He also removed too much tissue from Bobbie’s neck so that she awoke stitched together so tight that she could barely move her neck, shoulder, or swallow.
Today, Bobbie says this has only gotten worse not better. Her entire right chest area is numb, her collar bone has dropped because the front muscle holding it up also died from the surgery, other nerves and muscles also atrophied away including most of her Sternocleido-Mastoid muscle, and trapezius muscle, two of the most important neck and shoulder muscles. Bobbie says the nerves in her right hand pulled really tight after surgery and it was hard to find her hand in space and then even harder to open it. Today the hand is still very tight and often numb and painful as well. Her neck and throat is tethered tightly with scar adhesions and tightly pulling structures down to her ribcage on the right. Her mouth now gets so dry she wonders if the nerve or the blood supply to her right parotid gland was also damaged affecting the amount of saliva in her mouth and causing increased gum line tooth decay.
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Contact Information:
Patients For Access to Quality Care
P.O. Box 3454
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Email: bjj@sonic.net
