Articles - Medical Malpractice
Paralyzed Girl Sues St. Francis Again ::
(11 18, 2005)
THE WICHITA EAGLE
Friday, July 19, 1996
Section: LOCAL & STATE
Edition: main
Page: 11A
A JURY SIDED AGAINST A HUTCHINSON GIRL IN THE FIRST TRIAL, BUT A JUDGE HAS ORDERED A SECOND TO BEGIN JAN. 13.
By Lori Lessner, The Wichita Eagle
A lawsuit has been filed accusing Via Christi-St. Francis of fraudulently covering up records of a Hutchinson girl who was partially paralyzed after back surgery nine years ago.
The suit, which was filed Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court, is the latest twist in a complex medical malpractice case involving Maria Brower and her parents, LeAnn and Bruce.
The suit follows the family's other medical malpractice suit, which resulted in a jury siding against the girl earlier this year.
But the first suit took on new life recently when a judge ordered a new trial to begin Jan. 13 because one of the jurors - a registered nurse - may have improperly influenced deliberations with her medical knowledge.
Evidence disclosed at the end of the first trial prompted attorneys for Maria Brower to name St. Francis as a defendant in a suit filed this week. The original suit alleges malpractice only against Maria's surgeon, William Shapiro.
Officials from St. Francis declined to comment on either suit, saying both are pending litigation.
Near the end of the trial, a key piece of evidence was unwittingly disclosed by a St. Francis medical technician, said Brad Prochaska, the Browers' attorney.
Prochaska said the technician, Lisa Gould, showed the jury a strip of paper that supposedly came from a machine to monitor Maria's spinal cord.
That strip did not indicate her spinal cord was damaged during surgery.
But a different strip of paper that also was to have come from the machine had been entered as evidence in the case three years ago and showed conflicting data, Prochaska said.
Prochaska said summary sheets of the machine's results also appeared to be doctored because Maria's name was written in a space where another patient's name had been covered with correction fluid.
The lawsuit filed this week contends that Gould incorrectly performed a procedure to monitor Maria's spinal cord during surgery to remove fat from her spinal cord by failing to properly set up the device or accurately document the results.
It accuses the hospital of doctoring records to make it appear that Maria's spinal cord was not injured during surgery and to prevent her from winning a malpractice suit against any health care providers. It also accuses Gould of giving false and misleading testimony at trial.
The operation was performed Oct. 28, 1987, when Maria was 4 years old. Now a teenager, she is confined to a wheelchair.
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