$1.65 Million Settlement for Woman Whose Bowel Perforations Went Undiagnosed for Eight Days After Gallbladder Surgery
After trial: The case settled at mediation, so there was no trial or appeal. The defendants and the court were not identified in the published report, and whether the full amount was paid is not public.
Won by Emroch & Kilduff and Other counsel.
A 55-year-old woman had a small bowel perforated during a laparoscopic gallbladder removal, and the injury was not diagnosed for eight days. She needed multiple repair operations and a temporary ostomy, and she was left with short gut syndrome. The surgeons contested causation, citing pre-existing bowel problems. The claim settled at mediation for $1.65 million in 2017.
What happened
A 55-year-old Virginia woman underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a routine operation to remove the gallbladder. During the procedure the surgeon suspected that an instrument may have perforated her small bowel. He inspected the bowel and found no perforation, and the operation was completed.
The next day she called the surgical group with persistent vomiting and severe pain. The surgeon told her to go to the emergency room. Imaging there raised the possibility of a bowel injury, and her white blood cell count was elevated. According to Virginia Lawyers Weekly, the surgeon covering for the practice nonetheless diagnosed a post-operative ileus, a temporary slowdown of the gut, rather than a perforation. The original surgeon did not question that plan or revisit his own concern.
Over the following week she got worse in the hospital. On the eighth day, foul-smelling bile leaked from one of the laparoscopy wounds, and the two bowel perforations were finally identified. She needed multiple emergency operations to repair her bowel and a temporary ostomy. Her course included severe malnutrition, septic shock and acute kidney injury. She was left with short gut syndrome and chronic diarrhea.
The patient sued the surgeons, alleging they failed to diagnose and treat the perforations in time. The defendants contested liability, but the harder fight was over causation and damages. They pointed to what the report describes as extensive pre-existing bowel problems, possibly including an abnormally short bowel, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic adhesions, and argued that much of her long-term condition would have existed regardless of any delay. Untangling which of her problems came from the missed diagnosis and which came from her underlying anatomy was the central difficulty a jury would have faced.
William B. Kilduff and Christopher L. Spinelli of Richmond represented the patient, along with W. Randolph Robins Jr. The case did not go to trial. The parties resolved it at mediation for $1.65 million, and Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported the settlement on April 11, 2017.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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