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Widow received Jury Award

By Ben Glass

A widow from Barboursville, West Virginia has received a jury award of $1.54 million in a medical malpractice suit over a 2002 surgery which resulted in her husband, Thomas Thornburg, suffering severe brain damage.

On August 13, the jury in the trial, which lasted more than a week, found against Huntington Anesthesia Group Inc. The doctor involved was cleared of all wrongdoing, but a nursing anesthetist was faulted for inadequate attention to Thornburg's vital signs.

The jury found that as surgeons were installing an automatic implantable cardiovascular defibrillator, the anesthesia team failed to notice that Thornburg's vitals were deteriorating. Thornburg's brain was deprived of oxygen for a considerable period of time because of a lack of breathing, which resulted in severe brain damage.

Thornburg's heart condition was temporarily corrected by the device, but the 62-year-old eventually died on August 26, 2006. According to doctors, he suffered another cardiac episode that was treatable, but his total health, mental state, and living conditions influenced their decision not to render treatment.

The $1.54 million jury verdict came after a pre-trial settlement with St. Mary's Medical Center, the site of the procedure, worth $115,000.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on September 22, 2008 (boomark / email).