Our firm obtained an $800,000 verdict in Lake County Superior Court against a heart surgeon who failed to properly perform a heart bypass procedure and negligently treated his patient's postoperative heart attack. The defendant's negligence resulted in significant damage to our client's heart and greatly diminished his life expectancy.

In 1995, our client had an episode of chest pain, and it was determined in subsequent testing that he had a blockage in one of his coronary arteries but had not yet suffered a heart attack. His treatment choices included an angioplasty or bypass operation; he chose surgery because he was assured of better results. During the surgery, the surgeon inadvertently sewed the artery shut, blocking blood flow to that portion of the heart. About an hour after surgery, the nurses saw EKG changes on the monitor suggestive of a heart attack. They called the surgeon, who incorrectly assumed that the problem was caused by a spasm in the artery, which could be corrected by merely giving certain medicine. Actually, the problem could be solved only by immediately bringing the patient back to the operating room to perform another bypass. Our client was allowed to remain in the recovery unit for several long hours, all the while having a heart attack and losing heart muscle. By the time he was reoperated on over six hours later, his heart attack was complete and he was left with a severely damaged heart.

At trial, we called Dr. Dudley Johnson as an expert witness to testify against the surgeon. Dr. Johnson is a world-renowned surgeon and is recognized as one of the pioneers in coronary artery bypass surgery. Dr. Johnson testified that the surgeon was clearly negligent in misdiagnosing the cause of our client's postoperative heart attack and in waiting so long to correct the problem. The jury agreed and awarded our client and his wife $800,000. Unfortunately, the most our clients could recover under Indiana's harsh Medical Malpractice Act was $750,000, and the judgment was reduced to that amount. The defendant did not appeal, and paid the judgment.

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