In a March, 1998 Case recently reported in a legal summary of major jury verdicts, a jury in New York rendered a verdict on the amount of $12 million for a plaintiff in a medical malpractice law suite that arose with the allegation of the perforation of the common bile duct curing an ERCP. The plaintiff, a male 35 years old at the time of the incident, brought the action against two gastroenterologists and four surgeons. The suit alleged that the endoscopist who performed the ERCP negligently failed to recognize that perforation of the common bile duct had occurred, that an abscess developed which resulted in the destruction of 90% of the patient's pancreas, leaving him an insulin dependent diabetic.
Four members of a general surgical group examined him over a period of about a week after complaints relating to the abscess, and the plaintiff contended that they negligently failed to perform surgery, resulting in the injury becoming greater than would otherwise have been the case -- with this portion of the case against the surgeons and the hospital having been settled before trial. The abscess was discovered by the plaintiff's attending gastroenterologist, but this physician was not spared either, being sued on the claim that he negligently advised the surgeons that the conservative antibiotic therapy was sufficient.
The defendant endoscopist maintained that pancreatitis and formation of an abscess is a normal risk of ERCP, even without perforation. The plaintiff contended that the bile leak literally commenced digesting the pancreas and that by the time of the surgery to treat the abscess, 90% of the pancreas had already been destroyed. He also maintained that the diabetes also caused cardiac and vision damage and has left him impotent. The jury found that: (1) the perforation occurred during the endoscopic procedure and there was negligence in the endoscopist's failure to recognize this; (2) that the defendant attending gastoenterologist may have been negligent in recommending antibiotic treatment only, but he is not liable for damages since there was no causal link between that recommendation and defendant's condition; (3) that the defendant surgical group also was negligent. The jury assessed 60% of the total responsibility to the defendant endoscopist and 10% to each of the four surgeons, and awarded the judgement for $12 million.
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