$1 Million Settlement for Woman Whose Ureter and Bladder Were Injured in a Hysterectomy
After trial: The case settled at mediation before trial, so there was no verdict or appeal. The defendant was not named in the published report, and whether the full amount was paid is not public.
Won by Emroch & Kilduff.
A 46-year-old woman had a total abdominal hysterectomy for uterine fibroids. Her surgeon transected her right ureter and sutured her bladder wall to the vaginal cuff, perforating the bladder, and did not recognize either injury during the operation. She needed repair surgery at another hospital and went on to have repeated ureteral obstructions, kidney infections and lasting urinary symptoms. The claim settled at mediation for $1 million in November 2023.
What happened
A 46-year-old Virginia woman with heavy menstrual bleeding was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. Her gynecological surgeon recommended a total abdominal hysterectomy with removal of both fallopian tubes, and she went ahead with the operation.
During the surgery, the surgeon transected her right ureter, the narrow tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. The surgeon also mistakenly sutured the wall of her bladder to the vaginal cuff, the closure at the top of the vagina, which left the bladder completely perforated. Neither injury was recognized before the operation ended.
Several days later she went to an emergency room and reported that fluid was leaking from her surgical incision. Her abdomen was distended, and a CT scan showed about 4 centimeters of fluid collected in her right posterior pelvis and air in her bladder. The surgeon ordered her admitted for an exploratory procedure with a urologist the next morning. No urologist was on call at that hospital, so she was transferred to another one for the repair.
At the receiving hospital, testing found a perforation of the right posterior bladder wall. A urologist and a urological oncologist operated and confirmed what had happened: the bladder wall had been stitched to the vaginal cuff, the right ureter had been cut, and the bladder had been perforated in several places during the hysterectomy.
The injuries were repaired, but her recovery was long. She had multiple episodes of ureteral obstruction and kidney infections, and the injury affected her kidney function. She still lives with urinary frequency, urgency and leakage, and she may need to have the kidney removed in the future.
Edward J. McNelis III and Ward Marstiller of Richmond represented her. The plaintiff's experts took the position that the surgeon breached the standard of care by causing such extensive damage to the bladder and ureter and by failing to recognize the injuries during the operation. In their view, a urologist repairing the damage during the same surgery would have avoided both the short-term and long-term problems she went on to have.
The case did not go to trial. The parties mediated before retired Justice Jane Marum Roush of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and the claim settled for $1 million on November 7, 2023, before expert designations were due. Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported the settlement in June 2024. The report does not name the surgeon or the hospitals, and no terms beyond the total were published.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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