Articles - Medical Malpractice
Via Christi settles with paralyzed patient ::
(11 16, 2005)
Friday, May 31, 2002
BY RON SYLVESTER
The settlement ends a Hutchinson woman's lawsuit over the injuries she suffered in surgery a decade ago.
Maria Brower said she's glad to see an end to a decade's worth of court battles over an injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down when she was 4.
"I'm happy we were able to settle this without a trial," said Brower, 19, of Hutchinson after her family reached an agreement with Via Christi Regional Medical Center on Thursday.
The settlement, signed under a sealed agreement, also ended four years of allegations of fraud concerning the handling of medical documents from Brower's surgery at the former St. Francis Hospital.
"This is a case that has been in litigation in various forms and against various parties since the surgery in 1987," said Bob Heath, general counsel for Via Christi. "It was appropriate that we reach a settlement as to all issues and parties, which we have done."
Brower, who is studying fashion design at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, Fla., spent most of her life involved in legal battles against the doctor who operated on her and the hospital where she had her surgery. She faced a trial that could have lasted another month or more.
"It's quite a relief. I can finally get on with my life," Brower said by telephone from Tampa on Thursday.
Although terms of the settlement are secret, local legal observers estimated that it would take about $3 million to keep the suit from going to trial next week.
The suit began as a medical malpractice complaint against Brower's surgeon and turned into a fraud suit.
Brower's lawyers -- Brad Prochaska, Larry Wall and Gerard Scott -- argued that the hospital altered the documents to cover up malpractice.
Hospital lawyers said changes to a monitoring strip occurred unintentionally as the result of a filing error.
Via Christi, a nonprofit hospital organization that formed with the merger of St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals in 1995, faced paying $9 million if a jury awarded damages at trial.
Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Clark, in a strongly worded ruling, approved a request by Brower's lawyers for punitive damages two weeks ago.
In his statement, Clark said, "what all this evidence shows is pride that blocks prudence and wisdom." Clark said a jury could have concluded that the hospital acted with "an arrogance of a despot, wicked behavior -- called malice in law -- and lying."
Clark also dealt Via Christi a setback in February by ruling that Kansas laws designed to limit monetary awards for pain and suffering didn't apply because Brower's injury occurred before the caps became effective.
Brower was injured during spinal surgery at St. Francis Hospital. The mishap left her paralyzed and needing a wheelchair, leg braces and years of physical therapy.
During a malpractice case against Brower's surgeon in 1996, lawyers learned that a monitoring strip that kept track of the surgery had apparently been altered with correction fluid and also included another patient's information. That brought the present claims of fraud.
Lawyers for Via Christi and Lisa Gould, the technician who monitored the surgery and maintained the strip on file, claimed throughout the case that the changes weren't intentional or meant to defraud.
The average lawsuit in Kansas is completed within 180 days.
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