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November 14, 2003 - Jury Issues $2.91 Mil. Verdict Against Lackawanna Doctors

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A Philadelphia jury awarded $2.91 million Wednesday to the family of a 37-year-old man from Lackawanna County who went to the doctor for ear surgery and died from complications induced by anesthesia.

Jurors voted 10-to-2 in Collins v. Health South Corp., et al., finding two Scranton doctors equally negligent in causing the wrongful death of Bruce W. Collins, who lived in Old Forge. Collins had been under the doctors' care for an operation to improve his hearing in 2001.

Collins' wife, Auralee, had sued Health South Corp., which owns Scranton Surgery and Laser Center, where the surgery was to take place. Collins' wife filed suit in Philadelphia because Health South had an office there, said her lawyer, Kenneth M. Rothweiler of Eisenberg Rothweiler Schleifer Weinstein & Winkler.

When Collins sued in June 2001, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had not yet enacted a new venue rule requiring medical malpractice cases to be brought in the county where the alleged negligence occurred. The venue rule applies only to cases filed after Jan. 1, 2002.

Before trial, the defendants filed to transfer venue from Philadelphia to Lackawanna County, but the court rejected the motion, Rothweiler said.

After a jury was selected, Health South settled with the Collins family for a confidential amount, lawyers said. The remaining defendants again moved to transfer venue - this time because Health South had been the only defendant with a viable tie to Philadelphia, Rothweiler said.

Hosmer said his client is considering an appeal.

Attorneys for the anesthesiologist, Patrick J. Grady, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Bruce W. Collins was a mechanical designer and married with two children, who were ages 13 and 12 when he died. Collins made about $51,000 a year in his salaried job with Techneglas Inc., and another $19,000 a year from a mechanical design business he ran on his own time, according to court documents.

Collins was overweight, smoked cigarettes, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a history of heart disease in his family, court documents indicate.

Collins wanted to improve his hearing and was referred by his family doctor to Brutico, an ears-nose-and-throat doctor, Rothweiler said. [Brutico's practice group, the Northeast Ears, Nose and Throat Center, was also found negligent on Wednesday.]

Brutico evaluated Collins during two appointments in 2001 and recommended surgery on Collins' middle ear; court documents note that Brutico did not refer Collins to his family doctor, internist or cardiologist for a pre-operative workup or clearance.

On the day of Collins' surgery, medical records showed his blood pressure was elevated and the level of oxygen in his blood was low, according to court documents.

When Grady began to administer anesthesia, Collins' heart rate dropped significantly, and eventually his heart stopped beating. According to court documents, the paramedics rushed Collins to the emergency room, where he later died.

An autopsy showed Collins had severe coronary artery disease and that his heart had given out in response to the anesthetic drugs, according to court documents.

Plaintiffs' experts testified that Grady and Brutico should have recognized Collins' medical history as putting him at risk for heart disease. The doctors should have given Collins a full cardiac "workup," including a stress test that could have shown abnormal conditions that would have warranted further attention, the experts concluded.

The defendants argued that because of Collins' young age, his heart's reaction to the anesthesia could not have been expected, Rothweiler said.

The defendants also contended that Collins' family doctor had essentially "cleared" Collins for surgery by referring him to Brutico, Rothweiler said.

Collins had signed an "inform and consent" form for anesthesia that acknowledged he understood the risks of undergoing anesthesia, "but that doesn't exculpate the defendants from their negligence," Rothweiler said.

Collins' lost wages, assuming he would have lived 20 to 30 more years, were estimated between $1 million and $2 million, according to the plaintiff's expert economist, David T. Bunin of Wynnewood, Rothweiler said.

Wednesday's award was broken down into $1.52 million in wrongful death damages and $1.39 million in survival damages, Rothweiler said. He planned to file for about $225,000 in delay damages also, he said.