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The family of a woman who died during an outpatient procedure stands to get millions because of the judgment and earlier settlements.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 25, 2003
DADE CITY -- Katrina Gibson went to the hospital for a routine outpatient procedure, the kind of thing done every day at hospitals across the country.
She died that afternoon, eight days shy of her 31st birthday. Smothered by a sac full of her own pooling blood, Gibson's heart stopped beating.
After a weeklong trial and four hours of deliberation Friday, a jury decided the doctors deserve the blame for Gibson's death on July 6, 2001.
The jury placed the damages at $1.7-million for Gibson's widower, Clyde Gibbons, 50, of Zephyrhills, and Gibson's 8-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Marquailia Malone.
The family will receive more than that, however, under the terms of settlements reached two months ago with some of the doctors involved.
Between the settlements and the judgment, the family stands to get more than $1.5-million up front -- nearly half of it swallowed by attorneys' fees and litigation costs -- and another $3.8-million in payments over 35 years.
The money won't bring Gibson back, but it sends a message, said Gibbons' Palm Harbor attorney, Wil H. Florin.
"I think any time that physicians are held accountable by a jury, the end result is hospitals and health care are safer for all of us," said Florin, who tried the case with his law partner, Tom Roebig.
Gibson had been suffering for several years from abdominal pain, and doctors routinely drew blood for tests and administered injections for her pain, according to court records.
To make it easier for needles to find Gibson's hard-to-locate veins, doctors implanted a "MediPort" device under her skin that provided a direct conduit to her bloodstream. The implant sat near her collarbone.
But the device caused an infection and had to come out. Her physician, Dr. Paul Citrin, planned to replace it with a tiny catheter tube that would stop just short of Gibson's heart.
On July 6, 2001, as Citrin slowly pushed the tiny tube into Gibson, he punctured the side of a vein, Florin said. Blood seeped out of the vein and into a sac that surrounds the heart.
As the sac filled, Gibson's heart struggled to keep pumping blood. Her heart rate soared, and her blood pressure dropped -- but Florin said Citrin and the anesthesiologist, Dr. Russell Norris, failed to see the warning signs.
A simple pinprick to the sac could have drained the blood, averting the deadly outcome, Florin said. But Gibson's heart shut down first, he said, strangled by the blood-filled sac.
Last week's trial centered on Norris and his nurse, Ann Sachen. Jurors placed 33 percent of the liability on Norris and 5 percent on Sachen, making the two responsible for $646,000 of the damages.
Thomas Saieva and Lesley Stine, the Tampa attorneys representing Norris and Sachen, were not available Monday for comment.
Jurors placed 60 percent of the blame on Citrin, but he settled the case with Gibson's family last December. According to court records, the settlement provided $675,000 up front, plus periodic payments to Gibson's daughter. With compounding interest, those payments are expected to total $3,884,909 over a 35-year period.
East Pasco Medical Center, also named in the lawsuit, settled with Gibson's family in December for $250,000. Jurors found the medical center and one of its doctors, Joseph Hubaykah, each 1 percent liable.
-- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 352-521-5757 ext. 23 or toll-free