Denver Jury Awards $67.3 Million to a Boy Left Brain-Damaged After a Missed Aortic Ligature During Infant Heart Surgery

On May 21, 2019, a seven-month-old boy was taken into surgery at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver to repair a ventricular septal defect and an atrial septal defect, holes between the chambers of the heart that are among the most common congenital heart problems and are routinely closed in infancy. Cardiothoracic surgeon Vinod Sebastian performed the open-heart procedure. The parties later stipulated that he made a surgical error: he placed a ligature around the descending aorta, the vessel that carries oxygenated blood to the abdomen and legs, partially cutting off blood flow to the lower half of the baby's body.

The operation was run with the child on cardiopulmonary bypass, and two perfusionists employed by Comprehensive Care Services, Inc., Clinton Pernsteiner and Seiler Purdy, were responsible for monitoring whether his tissues were being adequately perfused. According to the family's case, the boy showed many signs during and after the operation that his lower body was not receiving enough blood, and the perfusionists failed to interpret those signs and communicate them to the surgical team. The lack of perfusion went unnoticed and untreated for more than seven hours. It was only when his legs turned blue and cold in post-surgical recovery that the team took him back to the operating room, found the ligature, and removed it.

By then the damage was done. Tissue in his lower body had died during the hours without oxygen, and that dead tissue gave aspergillus, a common environmental mold, a path into his bloodstream. The fungus crossed the blood-brain barrier, seeded in his brain, and caused permanent, disabling brain injury.

His parents sued on his behalf in Denver District Court in 2021. Before trial they settled with the hospital's owner, HCA-HealthONE, with Dr. Sebastian, with anesthesiologist Jeffrey Waldman, with pediatric critical care physician Alicia Herrera, and with the estate of pediatric cardiologist Douglas Christensen. The settlement terms were not made public. That left a single defendant, Comprehensive Care Services, on a vicarious liability claim for the conduct of its two perfusionists.

The case was tried from July 8 to July 24, 2024 before Judge Andrew McCallin. Jim Puga and Molly Greenblatt of Leventhal Puga Braley in Denver and Sommer Luther of Wagstaff Law Firm tried the case for the family; Kari Hershey and Katherine Brim of Hershey Decker Drake defended the perfusion company. Comprehensive Care Services denied that its perfusionists were negligent, denied that they caused the injury, and argued that everyone in the operating room worked under the surgeon, who was responsible for his own error. It also asked the jury to assign fault to the settled nonparties.

The jury found the perfusionists negligent and returned a verdict of $67,349,380.53. According to the firm, the award included more than $14.5 million for past pain and suffering and more than $52.8 million for future pain and suffering. On the fault allocation the jury assigned 7 percent to Comprehensive Care Services, 65 percent to Dr. Sebastian, 15 percent to Dr. Waldman, 12 percent to Dr. Christensen, 1 percent to Dr. Herrera, and none to the hospital. Law Week Colorado listed it as the largest verdict in the state for 2024.

The trial court entered a judgment of roughly $67 million against Comprehensive Care Services. The company appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing under the captain of the ship doctrine that the surgeon alone was liable for what happened in his operating room. At oral argument on June 9, 2026, the panel pushed back on that position. As of early September 2026 the court had not issued a decision, so the verdict remains under appeal.