• 27
  • January
    2012

A jury in a medical malpractice lawsuit recently awarded a 30-year-old woman $1.5 million for the debilitating injuries she sustained -- and will continue to suffer from -- after a surgeon decided to cancel her surgery. Now, the woman is left with only a small portion of her intestine, and she is not able to work.

According to the lawsuit, in 2003 the then 21-year-old went to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain. At the time, a surgeon found her condition severe enough to schedule a surgery for the next day. However, in the morning he decided to cancel that surgery, and then left for a pre-planned out-of-town event for the weekend.

Over the next two days the woman's condition rapidly deteriorated to the point that doctors become worried that she would not make it. An emergency surgery was done just three days after the woman had initially gone to the hospital with abdominal pains. During that time, it was discovered the woman had ischemic bowel disease, which is also known as dead bowel.

Now, while the average person has around 22 feet of small intestine, the 30-year-old only has several feet. This causes her to digest her food in as little as 30 minutes, which means that she needs to take medication to compensate for the fact that her body does not get necessary nutrition from eating.

During the trial, it was argued on her behalf that if the original surgeon has done the surgery when it was first planned, the woman would not have had to have most of her intestines removed.

Source: Evening News and Tribune, "Jury awards $1.5 million in medical malpractice suit," Matt Thacker, Jan. 20, 2012