You can't blame the doctors for a bad result.

This guy wants to blame the doctor because their clavicle didn't set right. That's an assumption you can't prove. Bad results don't equate to medical malpractice. (Please note, I seldom rewrite questions. In this instance I left it just as it was posed to me.)

Question: What can I do if after the accident the doctor and hospital said they set my clavicle, but they did not?

Question Detail: Had clavicle re-x-ray'd 2 weeks later and it still showed the original break. Was refused treatment, bone stated coming out of my shoulder. Went to other orthopedics (sport surgeon after I ended up in a different emergency room because the whole right shoulder severely swollen and bone ready to pop out of skin for the same problem. Had to have surgery right away, lost allot of my clavicle and replaced with titanium (6 screw plate). Have all the paper work, DVD's, x-rays and much more including witnesses. Talked to my GP then to the ER doctor and then to the sport surgeons and they will all back me up. They even called it "outrages" to what they did to me. Now I am permanently disfigured, limited motion in my right arm and shoulder, right shoulder now shorter then left. Shirts and jackets don't fit right and in daily pain. On oxy for pain. There is so much more to this such as them giving me a figure 8 to put on which is for women who are too heavy to relive back pain and has not been in use for over 15 years according to the ER doctor and the surgeon. Plus much..much more and I have every single piece of paper, x-ray, CT-scan, DVD's. I have already discussed this with my 3 (three) other doctors and they will back me up. I need to actually speak to an attorney, not good at typing.

Answer: There are two ways to ask this question, the way you did and another. If a clavicle that was broken and reset fails to heal and remains broken, is the doctor at fault?

I’m not sure I agree with you when you say the doctor didn’t set your broken clavicle. You’re making an assumption you can’t prove. A fractured clavicle may not “set” or it may set in a bayonet fashion or it may “unset” and need to be “reset”. Consider there may be other medical conditions that interfere with the healing process; conditions the doctors do not control. Let's start out with the obvious.

How old are you and do you have any bone conditions like rheumatoid arthritis? Were you taking any medications at the time the bone broke and was set? You may have the early stages of arthritis and that is the cause of the bone not setting up to heal. There are a lot of questions to be answered before you can point the finger at the doctors and say they didn’t do their job. They may have and your bone simply didn’t start the healing process – and that can happen for many reasons. Let’s look at one client of mine with a similar problem.

What is a humerus fracture? Johathen Cluett, M.D.

I had a client with rheumatoid arthritis who was in her sixties. She had a broken humerus, that’s the bone between your shoulder and the elbow. This client's humerus never did heal; she was on Prednisone for real serious arthritis and this in all likelihood affected the healing process. So the question remains unanswered as to how you were injured and why your clavicle didn’t heal.

One more consideration is did you follow the doctor’s instructions after they set the break? Did you keep your arm in a sling and restrain it? Of did you use the arm? Because if you used the arm and the clavicle was stressed you may not have allowed the healing process the time it needed to set properly. Using the arm or not using it is your responsibility, not the doctors. 

One thing about doctors backing you up – I’ll believe it when I read it. I don’t doubt you may have heard another doctor say something that indicated they weren’t happy with the result, but that’s a long way from getting a doctor to write an opinion criticizing another doctor for a bone that didn’t heal. Doctors aren’t Gods, and what they practice is for a good reason called the art and science of medicine. There is a reason why they say both doctors and lawyers ‘practice’ their professions. We practice at it because nothing, or very few things we do are black and white. No cookbook here my friend, for that go see Paula Deen and Rachael Ray.

In conclusion you can't assume because the bone didn't heal that they never reset it, especially not when talking about the collar bone.

Features of the Humerus – Anatomy Tutorial by TheAnatomyZone