February 29, 2024
We were able to recently settle a case resulting from surgical malpractice during a total hysterectomy bilateral oophorectomy and salpingectomy. The patient was a 72-year-old woman from Altoona. The surgeon caused a duodenal perforation with a surgical trocar. The surgeon perforated both the anterior wall of the stomach duodenum and the posterior wall of the duodenum. Worse, the surgeon failed to discover the perforations intraoperatively before the end of the surgery. This allowed the toxic gastrointestinal fluid inside of the patient’s GI tract to exit into her abdominal cavity resulting in peritonitis and sepsis. Shortly after the surgery, the patient did not recover as expected and became distended, tachycardic and tachypneic prompting a CT scan to be performed. The CT scan revealed fluid in the upper abdomen. The patient had to undergo 9 additional surgeries over a period of several years to fix and repair the damage caused by the original surgeon’s negligence. The patient went through one heck of an ordeal and was left with significant permanent scarring and disfigurement of her abdomen and impairment to her gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
We were able to demonstrate that the initial surgeon was negligent and should have never caused the “through and through” duodenal perforation and once the surgeon caused the perforation, the surgeon should have discovered it intraoperatively and been able to repair it to prevent the patient from becoming infected and correspondingly needing 9 additional surgeries to fix the problem. The case was litigated for several years but on the “eve of trial” we were able to convince the surgeon to settle the case on very favorable terms that are client was pleased with.