Hamilton County Jury Awards $2.06 Million After Surgeon Missed Hernia Re-Herniation and Patient Died
After trial: The final judgment entry was filed in the Hamilton County case. We found no appeal in First District or Ohio Supreme Court records, but could not confirm whether the judgment has been paid.
Won by Elk & Elk Co Ltd.
A Hamilton County, Ohio, jury awarded $2,063,255.51 to the family of Judy Helen Collins, 73, who died in November 2019 after complications of a hiatal hernia repair. Jurors found surgeon Robert Bradley, MD, liable for medical malpractice and wrongful death after he did not obtain a CT scan a radiologist had recommended and did not recognize signs of re-herniation. The same jury cleared the radiologist and his imaging group. The verdict came on Oct. 24, 2024, after a two-week trial.
What happened
In September 2019, Judy Helen Collins, then 73, underwent a hiatal hernia repair performed by surgeon Robert Bradley, MD, at Bethesda North Hospital in Montgomery, Ohio. In the days that followed she developed severe complications. She died on Nov. 28, 2019, 68 days after the surgery. She was survived by her husband, four children and 11 grandchildren.
Her husband brought a medical malpractice and wrongful death case against Dr. Bradley, TriHealth and its surgical institutes, the radiologist who read her imaging, Sean A. Litherland, MD, and the radiologist's group, TriState IMG. Bethesda North Hospital was named as well, but a judge dismissed the claims against it before trial.
The family's central claim was that Dr. Bradley failed to act on what the post-surgical findings were showing. Litherland had recommended a CT scan, and the family argued Dr. Bradley never obtained it. They also argued he did not recognize the key signs that the hernia had re-herniated. Those delays, the family said, cost Mrs. Collins the chance for timely treatment. She did eventually have emergency surgery, but did not survive.
The defense disputed the account. Dr. Bradley's side argued that the tests were completed properly, that the complication was identified in a timely manner, and that the appropriate surgery was then performed. John O'Neil, the Elk + Elk partner who tried the case for the family, called it a very difficult case. Elk + Elk retained surgery and radiology experts to present the medical questions to the jury.
The radiologist's recommendation for a CT scan was a central piece of the case. The trial ran two weeks in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas in Cincinnati. The eight-member jury deliberated for three days and returned its verdict on Oct. 24, 2024. It found Dr. Bradley liable on both the malpractice and wrongful death claims. It cleared Dr. Litherland and TriState IMG of any responsibility.
The jury awarded $2,063,255.51 in total: more than $363,000 for medical bills, $500,000 for pain and suffering, $500,000 for loss of consortium and $700,000 for wrongful death. TriHealth and its surgical institutes, named as co-defendants, share in paying the judgment.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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