Widow received Jury Award
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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.