Left shoulder blade pain and tingling in left hand

[ladoyle]

I had a lifting injury and immediately had pain between my shoulder blades. The pain went out to the
left shoulder and up to my neck. My left hand had the last 3 fingers numb all the time. I had general
Xrays in the emergency room.  I was sent to a physician assistant that had me see a chiropractor
that just confused the pain for a few hours. My hands became numb and cold all the time. I was made to do a lift test before the physician assistant would refer me to a surgeon because she said
I only had thoracic outlet syndrome. At that point I felt the worst pain with a lift test. I lifted 20# overhead and when I looked up the warmest-coldest pain shot into my neck. I went back to work
where I lost feeling in my legs over the next 4 days and by day 6 when I saw the surgeon I needed
emergency neurosurgery for a HNP at C5-6. I had a hot cord with no blood flow to the cord below
this point. My question is why is TOS a top diagnosis without any tests such as MRI, I would think
you would rule out a disc herniation first...What is the standard method to rule out such a diabling
injury.