$5.29 Million Verdict After a Shoulder Replacement Surgeon Tied Off the Artery Feeding His Patient's Arm
After trial: No appeal of the verdict was found in public reporting.
Won by Mercaldo Law Firm.
A Pima County jury awarded Sharon King $5.29 million after she lost her arm following shoulder replacement surgery at Oro Valley Hospital, where the operating surgeon mistakenly tied off her axillary artery and the neurovascular bundle supplying the limb.
What happened
Sharon King went to Oro Valley Hospital in September 2020 for a total shoulder replacement. During the operation, Dr. Andrew Smith, performing the procedure, tied off her axillary artery and the surrounding neurovascular bundle, the vessels and nerves that supply the arm below the shoulder. The result was severe vascular compromise. Without blood flow, the arm could not be saved. King's arm was amputated because of the injury.
Medical literature on the procedure describes an axillary artery injury during shoulder replacement surgery as extremely rare. King sued Dr. Smith and his practice, Northwest Allied Physicians. Before trial, Dr. Smith did not contest that the injury happened or that it caused the amputation. The one-week trial in Pima County Superior Court was fought over damages, not over whether the malpractice occurred.
The jury returned its verdict on December 8, 2023: $5.29 million. Marco Mercaldo, who represented King along with Ron Mercaldo of Mercaldo Law Firm, called it the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pima County in five years. King, for her part, said no amount of money fully accounts for losing a limb, and that she hoped to eventually be fitted for a prosthetic arm.
Public reporting on the case does not name Oro Valley Hospital's corporate entity as a defendant found liable at trial; the judgment described in news coverage runs against Dr. Smith and Northwest Allied Physicians, with the hospital identified as the facility where the surgery took place.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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