Johnson County, Mo. jury awards $2.88 million in malpractice case against pain clinic

At its largest, the lump looked like half a red racquetball stuck in the middle of Joel Burnette’s lower back.His mother saw it, his sister and his girlfriend saw it. They all worried about it. But a pain doctor either overlooked any swelling or paid no heed to it when he gave Burnette a steroid injection, a Johnson County jury decided, and Burnette went on to develop meningitis and a painful and crippling nerve condition in his spine.