Retired San Jose officer awarded $80 million over botched surgery
Source: SF Gate
Four years ago, a botched hemorrhoid surgery nearly killed Florence Kuhlmann, but some relief from the daily burden of her injuries came this week when an Alameda County jury awarded the retired San Jose police officer almost $80 million in damages.
The catastrophic chain of events started when Kuhlmann went into a Pleasanton hospital for routine hemorrhoid surgery on Jan. 27, 2012. Three days later, after experiencing severe pain, she discovered her bowel had been stapled shut against her rectal wall, closing off her intestine.
“She was diagnosed with an occlusion,” Kuhlmann’s attorney, Nina Shapirshteyn, said Tuesday. “Her bowel ruptured, causing a major infection and sepsis. She was really close to death.”
It was later determined that the stapler used in the procedure was defective, and the company that manufactured it, Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery, recalled certain models of the device — including the one used on Kuhlmann — later that year, said Richard Alexander, another attorney for Kuhlmann.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Jury-awards-retired-Bay-Area-cop-80-million-for-6700633.php
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