Jury awards $5M after woman’s breast surgery causes leg injury

A Buchanan County jury awarded a breast cancer survivor $5 million after her breast reconstruction surgery resulted in permanent loss of feeling in her leg. Missouri’s non-economic damages cap knocked down the award to $615,531.

Debbie Jackson opted for surgery on May 31, 2017, two years after her double mastectomy. According to the surgery chart, hospital operating room (OR) nurses left her in the same position during the 11-hour surgery. Afterward, she experienced loss of feeling in and use of her right leg due to a permanent compression injury to the sciatic nerve in her right buttock.

Jackson claimed that due to failed training and supervision, Mosaic’s nurses were not aware of the Association of PeriOperative Nurses (AORN) standards of care for extended surgeries. This requires OR nurses to use extra padding on a patient’s buttocks to prevent compression injury of the sciatic nerve, assess patients and relieve pressure throughout the surgery to avoid permanent sciatic nerve damage. Jackson claimed that lack of this care strangled her nerve and caused permanent injury.

A letter from the hospital claimed that after a full clinical review, the length of the surgery in the position Jackson was left in could have caused Jackson’s injury, which contradicted defense expert testimony from nine people who claimed that it was the result of rare, one-sided, single-nerve, acute-onset diabetes.

Hospital nurses and an expert nurse testified that they “chart by exception” and at Mosaic, they did not document intra-operative assessments or findings unless they experienced problems. The hospital’s findings did not mention this language and the AORN standards indicated that charting by exception without clear guidelines for documenting assessments, and how to document normal and abnormal findings, posed a danger to patients.

An expert’s videotaped examination of Jackson was played twice in court after the expert testified that Jackson’s recovery had improved. The defense played clips of the exam without sound, and the plaintiff played them again with sound, where the expert had cautioned Jackson to be careful, not to fall, and not to continue with tests to reduce the risk of falling.

The jury sided with Jackson in a May 10 verdict after deliberating for almost four hours.

William W. Bird of The Bird Law Firm represented Jackson. Referencing a $7.2 million wrongful death verdict against Mosaic awarded to his client in 2017, he stated that the result in this latest case “sends a message to a hospital that I sue frequently.”

“From an administrative standpoint, they fail to put the resources in place to make sure that everybody is trained and checked for competency in various areas,” Bird said.

Bird stated that he lamented that the court refused Jackson’s claim for punitive damages and that he wasn’t permitted to explain damages caps to the jury.

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Medical Malpractice

Verdict for plaintiff

Total verdict value: $5,000,000

Verdict breakdown: $150,000 in future medical damages, $4,850,000 in future non-economic damages

Judgment breakdown: $150,000 in future medical damages, $465,531 in future non-economic damages

Verdict date: 5/10/2024

Court: Buchanan County Circuit Court

Case Number: 20BU-CV03165

Caption: Debbie D. Jackson v. Heartland Regional Medical Center d/b/a Mosaic Life Care

Injuries Alleged: Neurological

Injuries detail: Compression injury to sciatic nerve in right buttock and leg, permanent degenerative changes, loss of sensation and loss of muscle, related mobility and fall risk impairment

Pretrial demand: $6,188,526

Last demand detail: confidential mediation

Tried before: Jury

Person presiding: Daniel Kellogg

Attorney for plaintiff: William W. Bird and Sean F. Marrin, The Bird Law Firm (Liberty, Missouri)

Attorney for defendant: Mark A. Lynch and Jaime L. Whitt, Simpson Logback Lynch Norris (Overland Park, Kansas)

Insurance Company: Missouri Hospital Plan for Heartland Regional Medical Center d.b.a. Mosaic Life Care

Plaintiff experts: Steven M. Arkin, neurology (Dayton, Ohio); Colleen A. Fiammengo, nursing, Peri-Op Nursing Consultants (Walnut Creek, California); Travis Snyder, neuroradiology, Imgen (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Defendant experts: Hector A. Miranda Grajales, physical medicine and rehabilitation, MD Certified Life Care Planner (West Lake Hills, Texas); Joseph G. Hershewe, accounting, damages, economics, Hershewe & Company (St. Joseph, Missouri); Jeffrey M. Kaplan, neurology, College Park Family Care Center Physicians Group (Overland Park, Kansas); Todd Clayman, nursing, Truman Medical Center (Kansas City, Missouri); Blake Johnson, neuroradiology, RAYUS Radiology (Minneapolis, Minnesota); Cielo Navato-Dehning, physical medicine and rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Medicine Consultants (Overland Park, Kansas)