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Bedard v. Gardner8/12/2005
{ } Plaintiff, Beatrice Bedard, appeals from a judgment for Defendants, Charles C. Gardner, Jr., M.D. and Charles C. Gardner, Jr., M.D., Inc., on Plaintiff's claim for relief alleging medical malpractice. Defendants filed a cross-appeal.
{ } In September of 1999, Beatrice Bedard was referred by her general physician to Charles C. Gardner, M.D., a colorectal surgeon who practices in Dayton, on complaints of abdominal pain indicating the possibility of diverticulitis, an inflammation of the small pockets in the wall of the colon. In more serious cases such inflammation may cause obstruction, perforation, and/or bleeding of the bowel.
{ } Upon examination, Dr. Gardner diagnosed that Ms. Bedard suffered from diverticulitis of the sigmoid colon sufficiently serious to justify surgery. He recommended performing a sigmoidectomy with colorectal anastomosis. The procedure involves surgical removal of the diseased section of the colon and rejoining the healthy portion of the colon and the rectum using a stapling procedure. An anastomosis is a joinder thus created.
{ } Ms. Bedard declined to undergo the surgery when it was recommended by Dr. Gardner. At age sixty-six, she suffered from a number of other adverse health conditions. The most serious of those were heart problems, for which blood thinners had been prescribed, and diabetes. Those conditions and their treatments made a successful recovery from surgery more problematic.
{ } In July of 2000, Ms. Bedard was admitted to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton for treatment of her diabetes condition. While there, she consulted again with Dr. Gardner and decided to submit to the surgery he had recommended. The procedure was performed at Miami Valley Hospital on July 11, 2000. Dr. Gardner was assisted in the surgery by two resident physicians, Dr. Hooker and Dr. Piovesan.
{ } Dr. Gardner performed a sigmoidectomy, excising a portion of the lower or sigmoid colon where it joined the rectum. The opening in the remaining rectal stump was secured with linear staples. Following that, a circular stapler device was inserted through the anus into and through the rectum. Tissue from the remaining healthy colon was secured to the stapler, which when operated drew the healthy colon section downward toward the rectum. When the colon and the opening in the rectum were joined, forming a connection or anastomosis, the stapler excised a "donut" of tissue from the circumference of each section while it inserted open "C"-shaped titanium staples through both to secure their connection. The stapler then crimped the staples closed. Liquid was injected into the rejoined colon and no leaks were found.
{ } Ms. Bedard weathered the surgery reasonably well. Her post-operative care was as expected. That included voiding stool which was infused with blood through the rectum, which indicated that the surgical site remained secure. She was released from Miami Valley Hospital on July 17, 2000.
{ } The following day, July 18, 2000, Ms. Bedard telephoned Dr. Gardner complaining of severe abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. He advised her to go to the emergency room at Miami Valley Hospital. She did, and was admitted to the hospital for observation of those conditions.
{ } A significant but medically acceptable consequence of a sigmoidectomy with colorectal anastomosis is that the anastomosis, the end-to-end union of the colon and the rectum, may undergo a dehiscence, a disruptive opening along the lines of the sutures. Then, fecal material passes out of the opening in the colon into the abdominal cavity. As it does, the tissue at the site of the separation typically becomes infected and inflamed. Th
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