This was supposed to be a routine surgical procedure. The gynecologist had reassured the patient. This was her very first surgery. She was going to have it done laparoscopically.
On the evening following the gynecologic procedure, the doctor called the patient to see how she was feeling. The patient told the doctor that she was having significant abdominal pain. The doctor reassured her that this was normal.
The next morning she was found dead on the floor.
An autopsy revealed that the doctor perforated the patient's intestine during laparoscopic GYN surgery and that the contents from the bowel were leaking out into the patient's abdomen causing a massive infection known as sepsis.
The medical examiner confirmed that the only reason this patient died was because of an unrecognized hole in her intestines.
When I questioned this gynecologist at his question and answer session during pretrial testimony in this lawsuit, (also known as a deposition), the doctor swore, under oath, that he had done this procedure correctly. He swore that before finishing the procedure he checked the patient's organs to make sure everything was okay. The doctor swore that there was nothing he did to cause or contribute to this patient's untimely death.
The problem for this gynecologist was that he could not argue with the autopsy report done by the medical examiner after the patient had died.
The doctor should have recognized there was a hole in the patient's bowel before finishing his surgery. Had he done that, he could've converted this laparoscopic surgery into an open procedure known as an open laparotomy and called in a bowel surgeon to fix the hole. Had he done that, the patient would still be alive today.
