QuestionI went to a chiropractor a couple of years ago after a minor car accident, I think he did more harm than good. He did various adjustments, but the thing that didn't feel right was when he adjusted my lower back, he would press down really hard. My lower back feels too far forward and I have had mild numbness in left leg from knee down to ankle since then. Could he have caused this? And can it be remedied?
Answer
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Hello D.,
I understand your concern for your condition. Numbness down the leg can be so burdensome that people undergo surgery for it. There are varying degrees of severity and there is no way I can know how bad your condition is. In fact, chiropractic is one of the most helpful things for this condition, along with PT and other treatment options.
It poses a major liability for me to speak definitively on this issue. In my honest opinion, however, it is very unlikely the chiropractor caused this and if it were pursued in court, you抎 probably end up losing a lot of money. But like I said, there is no way for me to know for sure. Because of the history of the auto accident, it can be just as easy (actually a lot easier and much more likely) to have your condition be the late effect of the auto accident. Sometimes certain problems from a car accident or other trauma can take awhile to manifest. Meaning, someone may suffer a whiplash but not begin to experience neck pain until 6 months or 10 years down the road. And if you tried to connect your injury to the chiropractic treatment, it抯 nearly impossible to show the leg numbness as a result of the chiropractic and not the auto accident, especially since chiropractic treatment is done with intent of helping a patient and is statistically one of the safest treatment options available, hence, chiropractic抯 extremely affordable malpractice coverage.
Beyond this, there are several possibilities for leg numbness, and chiropractic treatment is not a typical possibility. For example, people that smoke, have poor diets, or sedentary lifestyles might develop atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in the arteries, causing leg numbness. If you have arthritis in your low back, it can cause leg numbness. If an x-ray was taken and showed this arthritis and you tried to claim the chiropractor caused the numbness, even the most talented legal team wouldn抰 be able to win this case in your favor. Basically, leg numbness can be a vast number of things and is often multi-factorial, and it抯 nearly impossible to blame a doctor for a lifetime of improper biomechanics or habits when these are most common causes for leg numbness. Though anything is possible, it抯 highly unlikely the numbness came from the chiropractor, BUT like I said, anything is possible. I would strongly advise you to get a second opinion with another chiropractor, preferably from a chiropractor with specialized orthopedic training. A chiropractic orthopedist will have the initials FACO or DACBO after their D.C. The reason why I think you should see another chiropractor is because he/she will be able to more accurately assess your experience, symptoms, and history and better answer your question than I am able to.
And in answer to your second question, yes, this can be remedied. A lot of times it is a very simple situation. But the problem is that you need a diagnosis. Without a diagnosis, you don抰 know what is causing the numbness and you don抰 know how you should be treating it. Again, go visit a knowledgeable doctor to help you on your way. The numbness is not going to be the result of you feeling like your low back is too far forward. It is typically from plaque buildup, arthritis, a bulging disc, the piriformis muscle choking the sciatic nerve, or some other cause. To know which it is and what to do for treatment, a doctor can examine you and get you going down the right road.
I hope this helps clear things up a bit. Best of luck!
Dr. J.R. Strecker, D.C.
