Los Angeles — Former Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller has filed a lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Marina Del Rey Hospital, alleging that a catheter was mistakenly left inside her body during spinal surgery in 2020 — and remained there for years.
The 59-year-old reality TV personality filed the medical malpractice suit on June 3 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Miller began experiencing abdominal pain and discomfort after undergoing life-saving surgery for a spinal condition. Despite raising concerns with her medical team, including two of her surgeons, she claims those complaints were repeatedly dismissed.
It wasn’t until June 2024 that a CT scan allegedly confirmed the presence of a foreign object — a retained catheter — inside her abdomen. The same day, doctors reportedly performed emergency surgery to remove it.
In the lawsuit, Miller accuses the hospital and its staff of medical negligence, professional negligence, and medical battery, among other claims. She is seeking $1.4 million in damages. Her legal team cited research estimating that retained surgical objects occur in approximately 1 in every 5,500 operations.
“Despite complaints to various physicians, not one ordered imaging of any kind to diagnose the source of her pain,” Miller’s attorney, Nadine Lewis, said in a statement. “Rather, they systemically dismissed her chronic pain and let her suffer for years.”
Miller has faced ongoing health struggles since 2018, when she was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She has been a paraplegic since undergoing emergency spinal surgery related to the diagnosis.
One of the doctors named in the lawsuit is orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, who treated Miller in 2018 and previously spoke publicly about her condition. A representative for Melamed declined to comment on the new legal action.
Cedars-Sinai issued a statement declining to discuss the case, citing privacy laws. “The care and safety of our patients, staff and visitors are always Cedars-Sinai’s top priorities,” the hospital said.
Miller, best known for her role as the tough-talking dance instructor on Dance Moms, starred in the Lifetime series from 2011 to 2019. Her legal troubles began in 2017 when she was sentenced to prison for bankruptcy fraud. She served just over a year before her release in 2018, shortly before her health crisis began.
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