Elective Hernia Surgery Death: $17 Million Verdict in Massachusetts
Lawsuit claimed botched surgery and disregard of patient's post-operative complaints by Brigham Surgical Associates' surgeon resulted in the death of a 57-year-old woman — 5 days after elective hernia surgery.
2025 Medical Malpractice Trial Report
By Adam R. Satin and Lynn Hu, Attorneys for plaintiff
Plymouth County Superior Court, Massachusetts
Case summary
In this medical malpractice / wrongful death case, Lubin & Meyer secured a $17 million verdict (including interest) at trial against a Brigham Surgical Associates' surgeon for the death of a 57-year-old wife and mother of two — 5 days after elective hernia surgery at South Shore Hospital.
Case Details
The decedent was a 57-year-old woman, who developed a symptomatic incisional hernia due to prior abdominal surgeries she’d had. She was evaluated by the defendant surgeon, who decided that elective repair was indicated. Surgery was planned to be laparoscopic.
#Breaking: Lubin & Meyer Attorneys Adam Satin and Lynn Hu obtain $17M verdict (including interest) against Brigham Surgical Associate surgeon for the death of a 57-year-old wife and mother of two at South Shore Hospital, 5 days after elective hernia surgery. pic.twitter.com/GSyyfxRc8n
— Lubin & Meyer PC (@LubinandMeyer) January 23, 2025
At the outset of surgery, the surgeon failed in his attempt to place the Veress needle using a “blind” approach. He thereafter obtained access to the abdominal cavity and began dissecting adhesions between the small bowel and the abdominal wall. Due to these dense adhesions, the surgeon became concerned about potentially perforating the small bowel and converted to open surgery. The surgeon dictated that he completed the repair surgery without incident and that he had inspected the small bowel and found no evidence of injury. The patient was discharged home the same day.
On post-operative day 2, the patient called the surgeon to report increasing abdominal pain, back and shoulder pain, nausea and an inability to eat. The surgeon’s medical assistant, who was not a healthcare provider herself, returned the call and reported that it was normal to have postoperative pain. The medical assistant emailed the surgeon about the decedent’s call later in the day, but the surgeon did not call the patient back to obtain an adequate medical history. Hours later, the decedent developed difficulty breathing and went to the Emergency Room and was promptly found to be in septic shock. Exploratory surgery found a perforation of the small bowel. Despite heroic efforts to save her, the patient died.
The family testified that the surgeon admitted fault after the small bowel perforation was found. Plaintiff’s counsel elicited expert testimony to establish that the objective medical and laboratory evidence at trial supported the plaintiff’s claim that the full-thickness perforation happened at the time of the original surgery, specifically pointing to blood values at the 2nd hospitalization that could not rise to that degree of abnormality in just a matter of hours as claimed by the surgeon and his expert.
The jury returned a verdict of $17 million (with interest).
Lubin & Meyer medical malpractice attorneys Andrew C. Meyer, Jr., and Adam R. Satin and Lynn I. Hu represented the plaintiff in this case.
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