WV Hospital to Pay $2 Million to Family for Fatal Surgical Error

A West Virginia hospital has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a woman who died as the result of mistakes made during cancer surgery.

Genevieve Haught died in 2005 after undergoing a procedure at Weirton Medical Center. Surgeons performed transabdominal laparoscopic cryoablation to freeze a lesion on her kidney that was suspected of being cancerous. However, during the procedure, the surgeon perforated Haught’s stomach, which became infected and she later died, according to a report in the West Virginia Record.

Surgical errors are a common form of medical malpractice, which is to blame for the death of thousands of people and injuries to thousands more in the United States each year.

Haught’s family sued the hospital and others in 2007 blaming the surgeon, Hardev Parihar, and his assistant, Jayapal Reddy, for negligence. The suit also accused the hospital of negligently credentialing the physicians to perform the operation. Neither surgeon had performed the operation before but neither they nor the hospital told Haught, her attorneys said.

Parihar had faced nine previous medical malpractice actions, according to the West Virginia Board of Medicine. Two of those actions were settled and two were dismissed, officials said. Reddy had faced three such actions before and settled two.

The terms of the settlement reached with Parihar and Reddy was not disclosed. Hospital officials offered their $2 million settlement just before opening statements in the trial on the lawsuit were set to be delivered, attorneys said. The settlement with the hospital must still be approved by a judge.

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