Dallas Jury Awards $9.94 Million to McKinney Banker Whose Esophagus Was Perforated by a Hospital Feeding Tube
After trial: The hospital said after the verdict that it would appeal. We found no appellate opinion or reported outcome, so we cannot confirm what legally stood or whether the judgment was paid.
Won by Miller Weisbrod Olesky.
In May 2006 a Dallas jury voted 11-1 that Medical Center of McKinney, an HCA hospital, was liable after a nasogastric tube perforated the esophagus of patient Tom Ivey following stomach surgery in early 2002. The jury placed the fault on the hospital's nurses and found the surgeon neither negligent nor liable. It awarded Mr. Ivey and his wife, Sandra, $9,944,406. The hospital said it would appeal, and we found no reported appellate decision.
What happened
Tom Ivey, a 53-year-old investment banker and bank executive from McKinney, Texas, went into Medical Center of McKinney on January 28, 2002, for surgery to remove a benign stomach tumor and treat a bleeding ulcer. His surgeon, Dr. Mark Shea Henderson, considered the operation a success and expected a recovery of two to three weeks.
During his recovery, a nasogastric tube was placed through his right nostril. According to the trial evidence as reported, a nurse advanced the tube improperly, and it was later found looped in his throat. On February 2, 2002, doctors found that his esophagus had been perforated.
The injury changed the course of his life. Mr. Ivey went through eleven more surgeries and spent about a year being fed through a tube. His esophagus had to be removed and replaced with a section of his colon. He was left unable to work as he had before, and the jury compensated him for lost earning capacity as a bank executive. His wife, Sandra, brought her own claim for what the injury did to the couple's life together.
Les Weisbrod tried the case for the Iveys. The hospital, which denied negligence, argued that no eyewitness could say which nurse had caused the perforation, although Dr. Henderson had asked for an incident report at the time. The jury was not persuaded. By an 11-1 vote it found Medical Center of McKinney, owned by Hospital Corporation of America, liable, placed 100 percent of the fault on the hospital's nurses, and found that Dr. Henderson was neither negligent nor liable.
On May 10, 2006, the jury awarded the Iveys $9,944,406 for pain and suffering, lost earnings and medical care. Nearly half of the total was for pain and suffering. Mrs. Ivey received damages for her own losses as part of the award. The McKinney Courier-Gazette, which reported the award as more than $10 million, quoted Mr. Weisbrod saying that Mr. Ivey's entire life had been destroyed.
The hospital told the Courier-Gazette that it planned to appeal. We found no reported appellate decision, so the final disposition, including any judgment adjustments, is not confirmed.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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