Abby Lee Miller is suing Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and her doctors for malpractice.
The “Dance Moms” alum alleges Dr. Hooman Melamed and Dr. Paul Dwan “negligently” left a catheter in her body during a surgery she had for a spinal cord injury in 2020, per a complaint Page Six obtained.
“Abby Lee Miller suffered for years from an object left inside of her during spinal surgery; despite complaints to various physicians, not one ordered imaging of any kind to diagnose the source of her pain. Rather, they systemically dismissed her chronic pain and let her suffer for years,” Miller’s attorney, Nadine Lewis, alleges in a statement to Page Six.
Miller, 59, claims in her suit that she did not discover the “foreign blue object embedded beneath her skin, surrounded by scar tissue” until four years later and had it removed during a “emergency procedure.”
Aside from medical malpractice, Miller is also suing for professional negligence and medical battery, and is seeking a minimum of $1.4 million in damages.
A spokesperson for Cedars-Sinai Hospital tells Page Six in response, “Cedars-Sinai cannot comment on pending legal matters. Also, due to federal and state privacy laws, Cedars-Sinai cannot discuss any patient’s medical treatment.
“However, the care and safety of our patients, staff and visitors are always Cedars-Sinai’s top priorities. We are dedicated to ensuring that we meet the highest standards of care for all those we serve.”
Miller’s lawyer rebutted that, however, exclusively telling Page Six, “In California, the law requires a patient to send a 90-Day Notice to healthcare providers prior to filing a lawsuit. The doctors and hospital had 90 days to settle this matter without it being made public.”
The statement continued, “The doctors didn’t respond in any manner. The hospital only acknowledged receipt of the letter. With 1 in 5,500 patients having foreign objects left in them during surgery annually, Abby intends to use her wide-reaching platform to bring attention to this matter.”
Miller’s back issues began to take a turn for the worse when she was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in 2018.
Dr. Melamed told People at the time that they initially believed the reality star’s back discomfort was due to an infection, but then discovered that the cancer itself was causing her excruciating pain.
“We’re getting an oncologist involved and we have to figure out what the next steps are as far as chemotherapy or radiation or more spine surgery,” he added.
“All you can do is pray and, as a surgeon, you maximize everything you can for the spinal cord to recover itself. I am hopeful.”
Per Miller’s lawsuit, first reported by TMZ, it was during a second surgery in November 2020 that the catheter incident occurred.
“Dr. Melamed, in particular, attributed her symptoms to post-surgical scar tissue and offered no further investigation, no imaging was ordered, including a failure to examine the site of the pain,” the docs claim.
Miller declared that she was cancer-free in 2019, per People, but the disease left her unable to walk and bound to a wheelchair.
Lewis, her lawyer, further alleges to Page Six, “As a paraplegic woman with a life sentence in a wheelchair, Abby lives with daily pain in the aftermath of her Burkitt Lymphoma diagnosis.
“This is not just medical battery, it reflects a larger, devastating truth: women’s pain is too often ignored or dismissed by the very professionals sworn to care for them. Abby’s case is a chilling reminder: even when women are vocal and visibly in distress, their pain is still not believed.”
