We trust the physicians of this nation to help us when we are in need of medical care. And when that trust is broken, it results in a lot more than hurt feelings. Quite obviously, our lives can be put at stake when doctors take the wrong routes to better our medical conditions. Surgical mishaps are among the scariest ramifications of a doctor doing his/her job the wrong way. Very sadly, Tampa, Florida’s Lisa-Maria Carter discovered this first hand.
On November 1st, 2010, Carter went to Tampa General Hospital to have a routine gynecological procedure. She was to have a benign ovarian cyst removed – nothing more. However, after surgery, Carter began to experience severe abdominal pain. The pain, it was found, stemmed from a surgical error that nearly severed her small intestine. This led to gangrene in her hands and feet, which later required amputation.
Carter awarded $109 million in lawsuit.
As Bob D’Angelo reports on WHIO.com this week, Carter was awarded $109 million in damages, following her lawsuit against the University of South Florida College of Medicine, which employed her surgeon. That surgeon is Dr. Larry Glazerman. As explained by Dan Sullivan of the Tampa Bay Times, the former USF director of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery sliced through a portion of Carter’s small intestine and then closed up the wound without addressing the damage.
“After the surgery, her blood pressure dropped far below normal, to 67 over 48,” Sullivan explains, “A nurse guided her to a bathroom when her incision opened and emitted large amounts of bloody fluid. She later went into respiratory failure with signs of sepsis, the court record states.”
Carter required several surgeries to repair damage.
He goes on to explicitly detail how Carter required several more operations to cut away at the flesh-eating bacteria that developed and began to consume parts of her intestines, stomach and abdominal muscles. The gangrene in Carter’s hands and feet developed due to the medicine she was required to take in order to boost her blood pressure. It caused blood to flow away from her limbs.
Carter, it should be noted, was an intelligence analyst with the Department of Defense. She is now wheelchair-bound and requires constant care. Glazerman, meanwhile is still a licensed physician in good standing in Florida, Sullivan informs, “He is currently the medical director for Planned Parenthood of Delaware, according to his LinkedIn page.” Carter’s attitude, however, remains positive.
Carter has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s very hard emotionally,” Carter is quoted as telling the Times from a rehabilitation center in St. Petersburg. “I try to keep my head up and not worry about it.” To actually attain the $109 million she was awarded in court, however, Carter must go to the Florida Legislature and seek the passage of a claim bill. As D’Angelo explains, “the university is protected from exposure in lawsuits through Florida’s sovereign immunity law, which has a cap for damages at $100,000.”
Carter’s attorney, Ken Dandar intends to take the case to the Legislature. “They should know who Lisa-Maria Carter is and how she’s served her country all these years,” he insists in the Times article, “They could speak to the powers that be at USF and say, ‘Let’s get it done.’”
If you’re an attorney trying a medical misconduct case, please don’t hesitate to contact the clinical experts at Allegiant Experts to find out how we may be able to help. Call us at 407-217-5831 or email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.