Jury Awards Woman $3.5 Million Malpractice Verdict
A 53-year-old Harford County woman on Thursday won a $3.5 million medical malpractice verdict against two surgeons and their business, Vascular Surgery Associates.
After nine hours of deliberation, a civil jury found Dr. Roger E. Schneider, chairman of Upper Chesapeake Health System, and his partner, Dr. Mark D. Gonze, responsible for Victoria Little’s painful condition, her attorneys said.
Little’s Baltimore lawyers, James Cardea and Scott Kurlander, said their client underwent surgery for blocked arteries. But they claim that the doctors used an improper grafting technique, leading to blood loss and various injuries, including damage to her spinal cord, which left Little paraplegic and unable to walk, though she still has some feeling in her legs. She’s in constant pain, Kurlander said.
Little walked in to the hospital in “4-inch heels and she was never able to walk out,” Kurlander said, adding that the verdict has given her a sense of security. The jury awarded Little $1.3 million in non-economic damages, $2 million for future medical bills, and more than $200,000 for her prior bills.
An attorney for the doctors, E. Philip Franke III, said the complication that occurred in Little’s aorta surgery is known to happen “in the best of hands” and that the technique was appropriate.
“This is a nice lady who had a poor outcome, but it was not malpractice by these two well-trained surgeons,” Franke said. “We are reviewing the case for appeal.”
Franke said he also expects the amount awarded to be reduced as a matter of law.