Baltimore Orioles minor-league outfielder Nolan Reimold has taken legal action against Johns Hopkins Hospital alleging negligent medical care. It has been claimed that he was cleared to resume play too rapidly after spinal surgery, causing additional damage.

During the 2012 season, Reimold was with a herniated disk and he had surgery in June. According to the suit, a Hopkins neurosurgeon told him that he could go back to play before his neck bones had fused.

The suit was filed in the state's Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office. Reimold said he had no idea that every game he played caused him further injury as his bones weren't fused.

"We are limited in what we can say due to privacy and the fact that the case is currently being litigated. We believe that Johns Hopkins met the standards of care for this particular surgery", said Hopkins officials.

Dr. Ziya Gokaslan, who performed the surgery, joined Hopkins in 2002 and presently Gokaslan is director of its Neurosurgical Spine Center and the vice-chairman of neurosurgery in the Hopkins School of Medicine. Gokaslan has not said anything related to this issue.

According to a March news release from Brown, Gokaslan is scheduled to take chair of neurosurgery in the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in July. In the suit, Reimold claims that Gokaslan carelessly misinterpreted the film or was unsuccessful to consider the official radiology report because from the X-ray it is found that the bone had not yet fused.

Reimold came back to training and slowly experienced pain, numbness and tingling from his neck to his hands. After taking new X-rays at a facility in Florida, it was found that the bone had not fused.