The doctor negligently misrepresented what occurred during an operation that led to a man's death, jurors decide.
By GRAHAM BRINK
Published December 20, 2003
TAMPA - A Hillsborough jury on Friday awarded $765,000 to the family of a truck driver who died after a failed kidney stone operation.
The jury found that surgeon Tod Fusia was at fault when Terry Tapp's ureter was pierced during an operation three years ago.
"The jury decided that the doctor had negligently misrepresented what happened during the surgery, and that led to Mr. Tapp's death," said attorney Peter Brudny, who, along with lawyer David Eaton, represented Tapp's family.
The jurors reached their verdict late Friday. Fusia and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Dr. Fusia was at the center of another lawsuit filed earlier this week that claimed St. Joseph's Hospital allowed him and another surgeon to remove a patient's cancerous kidney, despite not having adequate experience on the $1-million surgical robot used to assist in the operation. The patient died two days after two main blood vessels were severed accidentally.
On July 14, 2000, Tapp went to St. Joseph's Hospital for the operation, which did not involve a surgical robot. During the surgery, a hole was accidentally put in Tapp's ureter, a duct that carries urine from a kidney to the bladder.
Brudny and Eaton argued during the weeklong trial that Fusia did not alert Tapp that his ureter was pierced during the surgery. Instead, Brudny said, Fusia told the family that the problem was just a spasm in the ureter and sent Tapp home.
"If the Tapps had known the ureter was pierced they never would have agreed to having him discharged," Brudny said.
Urine leaked from the pierced ureter into Tapp's body cavity, Brudny said. On July 26, 2000, the problems forced Fusia to perform a repair surgery that involved cutting the ureter and replanting it into the bladder.
Tapp, 51, remained immobile, which caused clots to form in his legs. He began having trouble breathing, Brudny said. On Aug. 16, 2000, he died from a major pulmonary embolism.
The jury awarded $850,000 but said the amount should be decreased by 10 percent because Tapp did not report to his doctor as quickly as he should have after he started having trouble breathing, Brudny said.
