Fire in the OR!

Cleveland, OH: A recent medical case tried by Cleveland attorney Peter Weinberger is leaping off the court docket and into print for a couple of reasons. First, there aren't many cases where a patient undergoing surgery is injured by a fire in the operating room. "This is a first for me," says Wienberger from the highly regarded firm of Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber, "and I hope it is the last." About two years ago, 20-year-old Lauren Wargo was in the operating room of the Zeeba Surgery Centre to have a mole removed from her right eyebrow. According to the evidence at trial Dr. Bryan Michelow, the plastic surgeon in charge, failed to tell the anesthetist to turn off the oxygen while he operated a cauterizing instrument called a bovie. "She was draped for the procedure, and she was sedated because she was afraid of needles," says Weinberger. "The doctor neglected to adequately communicate that he was going to cauterize the area." Flash Fire! The combination of heat and oxygen caused a flash fire that severely burned Wargo's face, neck and eyelid as she lay on the operating room table. The fire was out in seconds, but it did serious damage to Wargo. "If you ran a line down her nose it is basically the left side of her face. She made a remarkable recovery," says Weinberger. "But her residual effects are the inability to close her eye when she is sleeping due to scarring to her eye lid. As a result the eye will have a propensity to develop bumps on the cornea and she will have to use eye drops and steroids the rest of her life." Doctor Denies Responsibility For the next year and a half after the fire in the OR, Dr. Michelow denied any responsibility. "He told the father (who was in the waiting room during the operation) that the bovie instrument caught fire, as opposed to telling him that the instrument caught fire because he neglected to have the oxygen turned off at the time he was cauterizing the wound," says Weinberger. The Cleveland, Ohio jury however found the doctor 100 percent responsible for the fire and injuries suffered by Wargo and awarded her a total of $1.2 million. Unfortunately, for Wargo recent tort reform in the state of Ohio means that her award will be trimmed by more than 30 percent, a fact that Weinberger believes also makes the suit significant. "Her non-economic damages of $830,000 will be capped at $500,000. We are arguing in post-trial motions that the cap is unconstitutional," says medical malpractice lawyer Peter Weinberger. Wargo's award includes $425,000 in punitive damages, largely due the surgeon's attempt to mitigate his role. "I believe that the jury was not too happy about that," says Weinberger, speaking about the size of the punitive damage award. "Because the doctor ultimately agreed to accept some responsibility in the end we will be moving to recover her attorney fees as well." Postscript Medical malpractice suits can be extremely difficult for plaintiffs to win and despite a few headlinegrabbing cases, insurance companies fight every action vigorously and doctors usually win, according to many lawyers. However, Weinberger says he's noticing a slight change in the mood of the juries lately. "I think jury pools are turning towards plaintiffs these days," says Weinberger. Peter Weinberger was voted by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the Medical Malpractice Law and Personal Injury Litigation practice areas for 2009. Weinberger is the managing partner of the law firm Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber and has successfully handled a wide variety of

complex injury and wrongful death cases caused by medical malpractice, defective products, and motor vehicle accidents.

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/medical_malpractice/Peter-Weinberger-interview12344.html