File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

BC Supreme Court

Kamloops man files lawsuit claiming post-operation infection left him permanently disabled

Jun 3, 2025 | 12:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops man is suing Interior Health and a local surgeon, saying he was paralyzed by an infection he contracted after neck surgery two years ago.

John Robert Young filed the suit in BC Supreme Court on May 15, naming Interior Health and Dr. Jean-Francois Chevalier as the primary defendants, along with four unnamed IH employees.

In his Notice of Civil Claim, Young says he went into Royal Inland Hospital on May 26, 2023 for a decompressive cervical laminectomy.

Young alleges he “developed catastrophic neurologic deficits and paralysis” the day after he was discharged home.

He says his conditioned failed to improve for six months afterward, despite daily at-home wound care treatment. He was finally readmitted for another surgery to remove infected tissue and his C7 spinous process.

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By that time, Young says the infection had caused permanent damage, rendering him “permanently disabled and wheelchair bound with continued catastrophic neurologic deficits and paralysis as well as suffering chronic pain and visible permanent scarring.”

Young alleges Chevalier and the various medical professionals who treated him after his initial surgery committed medical malpractice by failing to identify and treat the infection at his surgical site.

He is suing for unspecified damages and costs.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.