Jury sides with surgeon in civil case

The surgeon adhered to the standard of care, jurors
concluded.

YOUNGSTOWN — A five-man, three-woman jury returned a verdict in favor of a surgeon who was sued by the estate of a woman who died from a blood clot in her lung after a gastric bypass operation.

After deliberating for three hours, the jurors voted 7-1 late Friday in favor of Dr. Robert W. Woodruff Jr. and against Melissa L. Woods of Farmdale, the administratrix of the estate of her mother, Cynthia Jane Woods of Warren, who died Jan. 20, 2004, at age 57. Dr. Woodruff performed the operation on Woods on Jan. 6, 2004, at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

The trial began Tuesday before Judge Charles J. Bannon of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Six of eight jurors must agree for a verdict to be reached in a civil case.

The suit contended that the surgeon was negligent in not prescribing anti-clotting medication for Woods after her Jan. 9, 2004, discharge from the hospital.

“It was not proven that he was negligent. ... We felt his care was to the standard as expected for this surgery,” explained Karl Devlin of Austintown, the jury foreman. He said the jurors reached a consensus that the patient’s obesity contributed more toward the fatal blood clot, known as a pulmonary embolism, than the surgery.

Dr. Woodruff knew of Woods’ history of a blood clot in her leg before the surgery and took the appropriate precautions, including administering anti-clotting medication during her hospitalization, before and after the surgery, which was performed in an effort to remedy Woods’ obesity, said Dr. Woodruff’s lawyer, Jeffrey E. Schobert of Akron.

“The doctor ... did what a reasonable doctor should have done. Unfortunately, she had a complication,” Schobert said of the patient.

Dr. Tom Magnuson, a prominent gastric surgeon at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, testified for the defense that he would have followed all the procedures Dr. Woodruff did.

Michael Shroge, the plaintiff’s Cleveland lawyer, said he was not sure if an appeal will be filed. Before the trial, the plaintiff demanded a $450,000 settlement, and the doctor offered none.