She Went In to Have an Ovarian Cyst Removed. The Surgeon Took Out Her Healthy Bladder Instead, and a Kennebec County Jury Awarded $17 Million.
After trial: The $17,000,000 is the full award with no statutory reduction, because Maine caps loss of comfort and companionship only in wrongful death actions and Emily Mitchell survived. As of this writing no post-trial motion and no notice of appeal has been reported. That verdict is recent and the absence of reporting is not proof there was no filing, and Northern Light Health has moved post-trial or appealed in other cases it lost in 2026, so treat the figure as standing at the trial-court level rather than as finally resolved.
Won by Berman & Simmons.
Emily Mitchell went to Inland Hospital in Waterville for laparoscopic surgery to remove a benign cyst on her left ovary. The surgeon removed her bladder instead, and pathology on the excised tissue found bladder wall and no ovarian tissue at all. She now lives with a bladder rebuilt from her small intestine. A jury awarded her $15.75 million and her husband $1.25 million.
What happened
On March 1, 2023 Emily Mitchell, then 40 and living in Skowhegan, went to Inland Hospital in Waterville for a laparoscopic procedure to remove a benign cyst on her left ovary. It is a routine operation.
The gynecologic surgeon, Dr. Danielle Gagnon, removed Mitchell's bladder.
That is not an inference drawn after the fact. The pathology report on the tissue that came out of her described full thickness fragments of bladder wall, and it recorded no ovarian tissue present at all. The cyst the surgery was booked for was never touched.
Mitchell was sent home. She was in severe pain, bloated, and could not urinate. She was readmitted, then transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where surgeons opened her up and found too little bladder left to repair. In October 2023 she went to Boston for reconstruction, where surgeons built her a new bladder out of a section of her own small intestine. She catheterizes herself several times a day and gets recurring urinary tract infections. That is permanent.
The case was tried in Kennebec County Superior Court, beginning July 13, 2026. A nine-person jury returned a unanimous verdict on July 24, 2026 for Mitchell and her husband Joshua. The award was itemized at roughly $2 million in past and future medical expenses, $6 million for pain and suffering and $8 million for permanent injury, coming to $15.75 million for Emily Mitchell, with a further $1.25 million to Joshua Mitchell for the loss of her care and companionship.
Maine caps loss of companionship damages in wrongful death cases. It does not cap noneconomic damages when the patient survives, so nothing here was reduced by statute. The full $17 million is the judgment.
Mitchell was represented by Susan Faunce and Travis Brennan of Berman and Simmons. Dr. Gagnon no longer works for Northern Light Health. Inland Hospital closed in June 2025.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Bangor Daily News, July 24, 2026: the Kennebec County Superior Court jury award after a bladder was removed instead of an ovarian cyst; names Susan Faunce for the plaintiff
- 2.Central Maine / Morning Sentinel, July 27, 2026: the Skowhegan couple awarded $17 million, broken out as $15.75 million to Emily Mitchell and $1.25 million to Joshua Mitchell; names Susan Faunce and Travis Brennan of Berman and Simmons
- 3.WABI, July 24, 2026: the Maine woman whose bladder was mistakenly removed and the jury's award
- 4.Bangor Daily News, July 24, 2026: the run of negligence rulings against Northern Light Health, giving the post-trial posture
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