The wife of a Frankfort man who died in 2003 after a surgery at Jewish Hospital that was supposed to alleviate his Parkinson's disease has been awarded more than $5 million in damages by a Jefferson Circuit Court jury.
Norman Gene Carroll, the brother of former Gov. Julian Carroll, died Feb. 4, 2003, a week after an elective surgery in which he was supposed to have a deep brain stimulating device inserted.
On Friday, his widow, 73-year-old Retha Carroll, was awarded almost $5.1 million from medical staff involved in the surgery, including $3.5 million for her husband's pain and suffering, $1.5 million for the loss of consortium and about $96,000 in medical expenses.
Jewish Hospital was dismissed from the lawsuit a few years ago.
"She is overjoyed that a jury finally made the health-care providers take responsibility," said Hans Poppe , her attorney. "For five years ... everybody said it was somebody else's fault."
Shannon Ragland, editor and publisher of Kentucky Trial Court Review, said the pain and suffering award was particularly high given the relatively short amount of time Norman Carroll suffered — "though it was a horrible way to go."
And the $1.5 million consortium award, which allows claims for loss of companionship of spouses from injury until death — was the largest for a wife in Kentucky since at least 1997, when Ragland began tracking state jury verdicts.
The previous high, Ragland said, was $1 million in a Boyd County case from 2001 where the husband lived three years after a missed cancer diagnosis. Norman Carroll lived only a week following the surgery.
The lawsuit, filed in 2004, claimed that doctors and nurses who were working on Carroll on Jan. 28, 2003 did not stop the surgery and take appropriate action when he started struggling to breathe.
Poppe said Carroll was awake for the procedure and told his surgeon, Dr. Dante J. Morassutti, and his nurse, Carolyn Lowe, that he was having difficulty breathing.
Five medical personnel testified during the trial in Jefferson Circuit Court that Dr. Atul Barry, an anesthesiologist, was called to the room to decide whether to stop the procedure, Poppe said.
During the two-week trial, Barry denied that he was called to the room, but Morassutti and others claimed Barry was present and said it was safe to continue, Poppe said.
"This was an elective procedure that they could have stopped anytime," said Poppe . "But the procedure didn't stop and he didn't get any better."
Carroll eventually lost consciousness and went into a coma.
His wife took him off life-support about a week later, according to court records.
"Norman should not have died that day and his wife should not have had to make the decision to take him off life-support," Poppe said.
The jury apportioned much of the blame to Barry, who was ordered to pay about $3 million in damages. Morassutti was ordered to pay more than $1 million and Lowe's estate and Medical Center Anesthesiologists must each pay $509,000.
"We all sympathized and felt for this family," said Sean Ragland, an attorney for Lowe's estate. He declined to discuss specifics of the case or trial.
Attorneys for Barry, Morassutti and Medical Center Anesthesiologists did not immediately return phone calls.
Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 582-4727.
