Articles Posted in Surgical Errors

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Howard Kinch was 34 when he underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed by general surgeon Dr. Christopher Touloukian. One week after the surgery, Kinch was re-hospitalized and diagnosed as having bile in his abdomen.

Kinch was transferred to another hospital so that he could receive an external drain. The drain mechanism later dislodged, which led to the development of sepsis that required a procedure to reinstall the drain. He now must have numerous drain replacement procedures every year and requires daily flushing of this device.

Kinch and his wife sued Dr. Touloukian and his employer alleging that the doctor transected the common hepatic bile duct during the surgery and chose not to adequately visualize the surgical field.
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Beekman Youngblood, M.D., is a board-certified anesthesiologist who appealed a circuit court judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of Anthony Martin, as personal representative of the estate of Lanesha Martin.

On May 25, 2006, Lanesha Martin underwent outpatient sinus surgery at Vaughan Regional Medical Center. During that surgery, she was administered general anesthesia and was intubated (i.e., an endotracheal tube was inserted into her throat to help her breathe).

After the surgery, she developed pulmonary edema while in the post-anesthesia care unit and began experiencing problems with her oxygen saturation.
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Gloria Tirado and Christian Tirado were plenary guardians of Gina Gutierrez, who brought a medical malpractice case against Drs. Konstantin Slavin and Gerald Oh. In the suit, it was alleged that the doctors negligently performed spinal surgery on Gutierrez and were negligent in their follow-up care.

In answer, Dr. Slavin raised an affirmative defense of contributory negligence for Gutierrez’s failure to seek treatment and follow medical advice. The case went to a jury trial and during plaintiffs’ closing argument, Dr. Slavin and his counsel came to the aid of a suddenly ill juror.

The plaintiffs moved for a mistrial the following morning, which the trial court denied. The trial court then entered judgment on the jury’s verdict in favor of Dr. Slavin and denied plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. An appeal was taken in which the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the entry of judgment in favor the defendant physicians.

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Ms. Doe, 52, went to a hospital emergency room complaining of abdominal pain. She underwent an ultrasound and was diagnosed as having gallstones. Dr. Roe, a general surgeon, performed a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, during which the doctor encountered an unusual amount of bleeding. The surgeon converted to an open procedure where it was revealed that Ms. Doe’s common bile duct had been clipped and transected. This is the surgical procedure when removing a patient’s gallbladder becomes necessary.

Ms. Doe was transferred to another facility where she underwent emergency surgery to repair injuries to her common bile duct, the hepatic duct and right hepatic artery. Ms. Doe was hospitalized for ten days and the recovery took several months.

Ms. Doe continues to suffer discomfort and pain. She sued Dr. Roe, alleging that the doctor negligently did the laparoscopic surgery by misidentifying bodily structures for cutting. Continue reading

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Ronald Fairrow, 56, underwent an appendectomy at Riverside Methodist Hospital. The surgical resident, Dr. Alon Geva, and nurse Megan Conrad attempted to insert a urinary catheter but encountered resistance.

Dr. Geva and Conrad made several more attempts until another doctor came and properly inserted the catheter.

Several days after the appendectomy surgery, Fairrow suffered severe bleeding in his urethra and later underwent surgery to stop the blood flow. Fairrow was unable to urinate due to the urethral damage and required Foley and supra pubic catheters for several months until he underwent urethral reconstruction surgery.
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Johnny Terrell Sledge, 24, suffered a gunshot wound to his back. He was taken to the DCH Regional Medical Center emergency room where an emergency room physician recognized the need for surgery.

On-call trauma surgeon Dr. Bradley Bilton was paged repeatedly but responded that he was in surgery and that someone else should be called to assist Sledge. The hospital staff could not locate another surgeon; Dr. Bolton was paged again.

Instead of coming to the emergency room after completing the surgical procedure that he was involved in, Dr. Bilton started a second elective surgery instead of coming to the aid of Sledge.
Unfortunately, Sledge died while waiting for an emergency laparotomy. He is survived by his family.
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Christine Coffey was diagnosed as having a “berry aneurysm.” The vascular surgeon assigned to Coffey was Dr. Henry Woo who reviewed Coffey’s images and advised her that an untreated aneurysm could cause sudden death.

Dr. Woo performed an Onyx brain aneurysm procedure. During the procedure, Coffey suffered brain damage that has left her with permanent hemiparesis. Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is the weakness of one side of the body. Hemiparesis can be caused by different medical conditions, including stroke.
Coffey had worked at a hospital, but she is now unable to work. She also has an impaired ability to take care of her young child.

Coffey sued Dr. Woo alleging negligence in that he chose not to obtain an informed consent. The lawsuit claimed that Dr. Woo had forced the liquid Onyx embolic agent into Coffey’s small aneurysm, causing the Onyx particles to escape the aneurysm and cause a stroke. Coffey also asserted that Dr. Woo decided not to advise her of the dangers of the surgery and safer available alternatives.
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In December 2015, the plaintiff, Michael Burke, who was then 73 years old, underwent a scheduled hernia repair at Northwestern Medicine-Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb, Ill.

After this hernia repair surgery, his blood pressure dropped and he complained of severe abdominal pain. Burke’s family asked the surgeon, Dr. Stephen Goldman, to look in on Burke, but Dr. Goldman allegedly said that he would not do so until he was finished with other patients.

At about 6 p.m. that same day, Dr. Goldman performed an exploratory surgery and found Burke’s abdomen was full of blood. An hour later, Burke’s wife noticed her husband had weakness on the left side of his face, he was unable to fully open his left eye, his lip was drooping and his speech was slurred.
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Linda Shelly, 56, suffered from various health problems including hypertension, congestive heart failure and diabetes. When she experienced shortness of breath, she was admitted to a local hospital, where a CT scan revealed a retroperitoneal cyst.

The next day, Dr. Muthiah Thangavelu, a general surgeon, performed surgery to remove the cyst. A subsequent pathology report showed that a portion of Shelly’s ureter was removed during the surgery and was included with the frozen section of the cyst. She was later diagnosed as having a right ureteral injury, a urinoma, and kidney swelling. Urinoma is the result of a breach of the integrity of the pelvis or calices of the kidney or of the ureter. Urinomas are urine collections usually found in the retroperitoneum, most commonly in the perirenal space, as a result of renal tract leakage caused by urinary obstruction, trauma or post-surgery complications.

Despite attempts to save her ureter and kidney over the next two years, she lost a kidney, necessitating dialysis and hastening her death. She was survived by her three adult children.
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Matthew Standley had a history of osteomyelitis, bone disease or bone infection, 14 knee surgeries, and numerous skin grafts and muscle harvests. When he experienced pain in his left knee, he consulted osteopathic orthopedic surgeon Dr. Melvyn Rech. Several weeks later, Dr. Rech performed a left knee arthroscopy, meniscectomy, a chondroplasty, and hardware removal.

Several months after these procedures, Dr. Rech performed a total knee replacement.

At Standley’s post-operative evaluation two weeks after the knee replacement, Dr. Rech prescribed Keflex, an anti-bacterial drug. Within two weeks, Standley went to a hospital emergency room, complaining of severe knee pain and drainage from the surgical site. Dr. Rech did not respond to several nurses’ calls, and Standley, 51, was subsequently admitted for treatment of cellulitis and a possible hardware infection.
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