Bomkamp v. Go Ends in $17.3 Million Settlement After a Splenectomy Left a Child With Permanent Brain Damage

On June 14, 2007, a six-year-old girl was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, for a laparoscopic splenectomy to treat a congenital problem with her spleen. The operation was meant to be routine. The surgeon, Dr. Leonard Go, reached for a morcellator, a blender-like device that breaks up tissue so it can be removed through small incisions. He had never used one before, a fact he later acknowledged in deposition.

During the procedure the device cut far beyond its target. It transected the infra-renal aorta, sliced partially through the inferior vena cava, and injured the small bowel. The child lost roughly 1,900 milliliters of blood, close to the entire blood volume of a patient her size. She went into cardiac arrest on the operating table, and her brain was deprived of oxygen.

The anoxic injury was permanent. The girl can no longer speak or feed herself. She uses a wheelchair, depends on a gastrostomy tube, and requires care around the clock. Her family said she communicates by blinking her eyes.

Daniel A. Rottier and James M. Fergal of Habush Habush & Rottier S.C. represented the family in Dane County Circuit Court, Case No. 07 CV 4013, before Judge Maryann Sumi. The claim documented how a surgeon used an instrument outside his training and turned a planned spleen removal into a catastrophic vascular injury. The damages were itemized in detail: $13,298,000 for future care, $1,602,000 for lost earning capacity, $1,250,000 in past medical bills, $750,000 for the parents' loss of society and companionship, and $400,000 for home modifications.

Judge Sumi approved the $17.3 million settlement on April 15, 2009. Dr. Go's primary malpractice insurer paid the first $1 million. The balance came from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, the state pool that covers Wisconsin malpractice claims above a provider's primary coverage. Under that structure the Fund retained roughly $8.2 million to pay the child's future medical expenses as they come due, an arrangement the plaintiffs contested during the proceedings.

Because the case resolved by settlement rather than a jury verdict, it was not subject to post-trial reduction or remittitur. The Wisconsin Law Journal's Verdict and Settlement Reporter listed the $17.3 million figure as the largest settlement reported to it in 2009.