UCLA and Botox Injury
At this point several specialists mentioned to Bobbie that she might have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome so Bobbie spent almost the rest of her savings to travel to Los Angeles to begin evaluation there. A Thoracic Outlet Surgeon, named Dr. Samuel Ahn, Gonda Vascular Center, at UCLA Medical Center told Bobbie that she should get a Scalene Block by a Dr. Sheldon Jordan to determine if surgery would benefit her. This block involved letting the neurologist stick a needle in the front right side of Bobbie’s neck to inject a numbing solution to see if it improved her neck and arm function.
The injection was done at a private surgery center in Santa Monica which was owned in partnership by Dr. Jordan, the neurologist. The injection was extremely painful. During the procedure, some anesthesia leaked into Bobbie’s throat and she began to black out on the operating table. However, later that day, the injection seemed to improve movement in her tightly scarred neck and the neurologist told Bobbie that he she would benefit from Botox injections. Seeking some improvement from her symptoms, Ms Jenke tried the Botox, however she assumed Dr. Jordan would only put the Botox in the same muscle he previously injected.
Sadly, this was not the case. Dr. Jordan insisted on Botoxxing several muscles including the trapezius muscle that was holding up Bobbie’s shoulder blade. Bobbie expressed her concerns and fears regarding this, but Dr. Jordan ignored them. He injected too many muscles in the neck, back and shoulder, and on the airplane coming back to Santa Rosa, Bobbie’s whole right shoulder complex dropped. Bone-crushing pain began down her entire arm. She lost use of her right shoulder, shoulder blade, arm and fingers for several months and could not move her neck.
Bobbie states she had to wear a Sully neoprene shoulder brace for months just to hold her shoulder onto her body because of the damage caused by the Botox. Even though she called Dr. Jordan immediately upon arriving home, he told her there was no antidote to Botox, and she should come back to Santa Monica to see him. Bobbie said she would only return if he paid her way, and if there was something to be done to help her now. The doctor refused to pay her way back, or to offer any real solution. Unfortunately, Bobbie also learned that Botox should not be put into a prior surgery site; her prior surgery results were now made even worse, and the Botox created new kinds of spasticity, and problems Bobbie had never anticipated.
Bobbie later learned that the UCLA surgeon, Dr. Samuel Ahn, who recommended she go to Dr. Jordan for the scalene block in the first place was a partial investor in the surgery center where Dr. Jordan did his injections. She was not told this at the time. More recently, she learned that this same surgeon was finally prohibited from doing anymore Thoracic Outlet Surgeries at UCLA Medical Center and is now working in private practice with this same neurologist and doing Thoracic Outlet surgeries at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. In fact, according to UCLA’s Gonda Vascular Center they are no longer performing neurogenic thoracic outlet surgeries at all because the outcomes have been so poor. Bobbie did not learn of this until just recently.
After two more years of trying to rehabilitate new injuries now caused by the Botox, prior surgeries and the original Rolfing injury Bobbie still was not improving. No longer able to work at all, she found herself living in pain, her savings depleted, on S.S.I., Medi-Care, and Medi-Cal.
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Contact Information:
Patients For Access to Quality Care
P.O. Box 3454
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
Email: bjj@sonic.net
