$2.67 Million Verdict After a Cardiologist Left a Polymer Device Fragment in a Patient's Leg Artery

Chapman went to Dr. Shashi Ahuja for a procedure using a device that, at the time, was relatively new to the practice, one intended to treat an arterial condition in her leg using a minimally invasive approach rather than open surgery. That kind of device relies on the physician controlling it precisely as it moves through the artery, and precision was where the case said the procedure went wrong.

According to Chapman's lawsuit, Ahuja mishandled the device during the procedure and, in doing so, left a piece of polymer material behind, lodged in an artery in her right leg. A foreign fragment left inside an artery is not a cosmetic problem. It can obstruct blood flow, trigger inflammation, and cause the kind of progressive pain and tissue damage that Chapman went on to experience.

In the days that followed the procedure, Chapman began having intense pain in her right calf. It did not fade. It got worse. She called Ahuja's office more than once to report it. According to the lawsuit, she was never told to come in for an evaluation despite reporting escalating symptoms that, in retrospect, tracked exactly what a retained arterial fragment would be expected to cause. By the time the underlying problem was identified and addressed, the damage to her leg was done: Chapman was left with a disfigured, largely unusable lower leg.

Chapman sued Ahuja for medical malpractice in Allen Superior Court. The case took an unusually long path to trial, winding through the court system for more than eight years before a jury finally heard it, the kind of delay common in malpractice litigation that requires extensive expert testimony on the standard of care for a still-developing procedure and device. When the case did reach trial, it ran ten days.

Lance Cline and Lindsay Popejoy represented Chapman. The jury found Ahuja negligent, both in how he handled the device during the original procedure and in how his office responded, or failed to respond, to Chapman's reports of worsening pain afterward. It awarded her $2,670,000 in damages.

Ahuja appealed, and Cline and Popejoy represented Chapman as the appellee defending the verdict.

One open question the case does not resolve on the public record is whether the award exceeds the cap the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act places on a qualified health care provider's liability. That cap applies only if the treating physician was a qualified provider under the Act at the time of the care in question, a status that depends on the provider's insurance and filings and is not something the published reporting on this case confirms one way or the other for Dr. Ahuja. Absent that confirmation, it cannot be said whether the $2,670,000 figure was reduced to conform to the statutory cap or stands as the full verdict amount.