A jury in Portland, Ore., has awarded over $24.6 million to the family of a patient who died during a colonoscopy in 2018, reported Law360 Aug. 19.
The jury heard opening arguments for the case July 31. The family of Erric Gilbert initially sued the clinic and the team of medical providers for a total of $57.7 million in both economic and non-economic damages for failing to provide emergency resuscitation in time after Mr. Gilbert's vital signs began to crash during his procedure.
On Aug. 16, the jury found the clinic team 40% responsible for Mr. Gilbert's death and placed the remaining responsibility on an anesthesiologist, who settled out of the case. The gastroenterologist who performed the procedure, Young Choi, MD, was found at no fault for the incident by the jury, despite opposing arguments by Mr. Gilbert's family.
The family was awarded $20.5 million in non-economic damages and roughly $4.1 million in economic damages. There were no punitive damages in the case.
Mr. Gilbert scheduled a colonoscopy in 2018 to determine the cause of blood in his stool. Mr. Gilbert had high body mass index, high blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnea, and was sent to the Portland Clinic's affiliated ASC, the Alberty Surgical Center, for his procedure.
During the procedure, Mr. Gilbert's airway closed up and he went without oxygen for 22 minutes, the jury heard. He was declared brain dead and died shortly afterward on Nov. 2, 2018. The jury heard in court that the anesthesiologist, David Stellway, MD, brushed off questions as to whether the procedure should pause and failed to raise the needed level of alarm while "bagging" Gilbert to try to supply him with oxygen. Dr. Stellway was part of a different health group and not a part of this trial.
No emergency code was called until another surgical tech stepped into the room because she thought the procedure was over and she was going to clean up for the next patient. Noticing the chaotic scene, she quickly pushed the code button on the wall, alerting paramedics and an ambulance, according to the report.
Becker's has reached out to the Portland Clinic and their affiliated ASC and will update this story if more information becoemes available.