Michelle Jean Shockley v. Sierra Nevada Memorial-Miners Hospital, Michael Dahle, Roman Malvehy
Published: Jul. 13, 2004 | Result Date: Mar. 30, 2004 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: 68180 Verdict – $0
Judge
Court
Nevada Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Scott E. Murray
(Donnelly Nelson Depolo & Murray)
Experts
Plaintiff
Gordon Wong
(medical)
Albert J. Phillips
(medical)
Defendant
Fung Lam
(medical)
Reuben A. Clay
(medical)
Thomas Thomas Boyle
(medical)
Barry Nichols Gardiner
(medical)
Facts
On Aug. 24, 2001, plaintiff Michelle Shockley, 40, was admitted to Sierra Nevada Memorial-Miners Hospital, Grass Valley as a patient of gynecologist Michael Dahle for the treatment of focal endometriosis. Dahle performed a laparoscopy, including a cul-de-sac biopsy, left ovary biopsy, laser ablation of endometriosis and a left paratubal cyst resection. She was discharged before noon of the same day. She returned to the emergency department of the same hospital that afternoon, complaining of increasing abdominal pain. She was admitted, evaluated by emergentologist Brian Evans, and released the next day after intravenous pain control. She was readmitted Aug. 26 by gynecologist Roman Malvehy, who admitted her with IV fluids and electrolyte balance, pain medication and antiemetics. Malvehy obtained for Shockley a surgical consult from general surgeon Minor Ward on Aug. 27. During an exploratory laparotomy, once he had opened the abdominal cavity, Ward discovered an outpouring of gas, a few thousand cubic-centimeters of brown, foul-smelling fluid, and an approximately 5 mm long opening in one wall of the proximal ileum, which he repaired. Complications from the bacterial peritonitis that resulted kept Shockley in the hospital until the end of September.
Damages
$974,000
Injuries
Shockley suffered from increasing abdominal pain, serious diarrhea, fevers, chills and nausea after the initial laparoscopy. She thereafter developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and desaturation so that she was intubated for 48 hours. She had wound infections, and developed nosocomial pneumonia after extubation. She developed multicentric hernias requiring the implantation of surgical mesh, then replaced by absorbable mesh.
Deliberation
two hours
Poll
12-0 (as to Malvehy), 10-2 (as to Dahle)
Length
10 days
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