Forum, doctor win malpractice case

The lawsuit unsuccessfully sought $500,000 in damages.

YOUNGSTOWN — A jury has ruled Forum Health and a Youngstown internist were not negligent in the care of a 78-year-old woman who died after heart surgery.

In the trial of a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman’s estate, the six-woman, two-man jury returned its unanimous verdict late Friday after less than two hours of deliberations at the end of a weeklong trial.

The suit, which alleged medical malpractice, unsuccessfully sought $500,000 in damages.

Visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court presided over the trial.

The complaint was filed by Colleen M. Rubin of Twinsburg, whose mother, Anna M. Slattery of Austintown, died in July 2004 after being admitted to Forum Health Northside Medical Center by the internist, Dr. John M. Koval.

Forum was named as a defendant because it was Dr. Koval’s employer, said Marshall D. Buck, the lawyer for Forum and Dr. Koval.

In 2001, Dr. Koval ordered an echocardiogram, which revealed Slattery suffered from a narrowed heart valve. However, the lawsuit said Dr. Koval did not provide any follow-up cardiac care and did not refer her to any cardiologist between February 2002 and June 2004, when she was admitted to the hospital suffering from shortness of breath.

An echocardiogram is a test in which recordings of sound waves directed at the heart provide information on heart health and function.

In January 2004, Dr. Koval’s notes showed he was contemplating ordering a repeat echocardiogram, but the plan wasn’t followed through, the suit said.

Slattery died because her “debilitated organ systems were not able to compensate for the stress and trauma of surgery,” the suit said.

Dr. Koval referred Slattery to a cardiologist with whom she had an appointment in July 2001, but members of Slattery’s family canceled that appointment because they wanted her to see another cardiologist, Buck said. The family’s preferred cardiologist saw Slattery four times over seven months, Buck added.

Slattery never exhibited symptoms of the valve problem any time before her June 2004 hospitalization, Buck said. “The surgeons all testified this patient underwent surgery at the exact time that she should have,” Buck concluded.

The suit was filed by attorneys Lawrence J. Scanlon and Michael J. Elliott of Akron.