Medical Attorney Sues Surgeon, Pt. 1

MEDICAL ATTORNEY SUES SURGEON

A medical attorney sues a surgeon for failing to get informed consent from a patient for a vaginal operation that pierced the patient’s rectum by mistake.
A summary of a  ruling in a case filed by a medical attorney:

Anthony Quartell, M.D., performed rectocele repair surgery on a woman we’ll call Vivian. Shyam Hatangadi, M.D., attended the surgery because of his experience with a mesh kit product that Dr. Quartell used to make the repair. A rectocele is a bulging of the lower vaginal wall above the anal sphincter, so there is a bulging of the rectum out into the vagina.

During the surgery, Dr. Quartell accidentally tore Vivian’s rectum. Vivian developed infections and hernias. She required many further procedures over the next several years.

Victim Hires Attorney.

Vivian hired a medical attorney. The medical attorney sued the doctors. The medical attorney did not charge negligence (carelessness) in the performance of the rectocele repair surgery. Nor did the medical attorney claim any defect in the mesh product. Rather, the medical attorney contended the surgery was not appropriate to address Vivian’s urinary symptoms. Therefore, the doctors should not have performed it.

Vivian first saw Dr. Quartell in 2005, when she was sixty-two years old. Vivian had a history of abdominal and urinary problems. She urinated frequently. She had a reduced urinary stream. Vivian also felt a sensation of not fully emptying the bladder when urinating.

Vivian’s urinary problems had intensified by 2005. She had an urge to urinate more frequently. She would need to get out of bed two or three times during the night. During the day, she felt the urge every half hour.

Dr. Quartell testified that, when he examined Vivian on October 14, 2005, she “had a grade 2 rectocele.” He asked Vivian about her urinary problems.  The rectocele repair surgery he later performed was supposed to alleviate her symptoms.

Vivian’s expert witness, Charles Loguda, M.D., testified that all her later surgeries were related to the complications that occurred following her rectocele repair surgery.

(I will continue this story in my next post.)