Baltimore Jury Awards $1.5 Million After ERCP Performed Without Informed Consent

Wanda Saffer was 72 years old when her primary care doctor noticed blood test irregularities pointing to an inflamed pancreas. Concerned about cancer, the doctor referred her to Dr. Mark Noar, a gastroenterologist in Towson, for evaluation. What happened next became the center of a Baltimore County malpractice trial.

Noar showed Saffer ultrasound images that, he told her, suggested a mass or tumor. Under that impression, Saffer agreed to undergo an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, commonly called an ERCP. She believed the procedure was intended to confirm or rule out pancreatic cancer. The actual goal of the procedure, plaintiffs later argued at trial, was primarily therapeutic, not diagnostic, and Noar later claimed the images showing a mass did not reflect her true condition. She was never given the opportunity to weigh those facts before consenting.

The ERCP was performed at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson on April 26, 2013. Within 24 hours Saffer was in the intensive care unit. She had developed necrotizing pancreatitis, a severe inflammatory condition in which pancreatic tissue begins to die. She spent 84 days in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities over the months that followed, hospitalized four additional times as her condition required ongoing treatment.

The damage proved permanent. By the time of trial, Saffer required supplemental digestive enzymes because her pancreas could no longer do the work on its own. She also developed Type 2 diabetes as a result of the injury and depended on daily insulin injections.

Laura G. Zois and Rodney M. Gaston of Miller and Zois LLC tried the case in Baltimore County Circuit Court before Judge Mickey J. Norman. The plaintiffs argued that Noar misled Saffer about what the images showed and what the procedure was for, depriving her of a genuine choice. The defense, handled by Neal Brown and Saamia Dasti of Waranch and Brown LLC, contended that pancreatitis was a known risk of the procedure that Noar had disclosed.

After a five-day trial and nearly six hours of deliberation, a jury of five men and one woman found that Noar had failed to obtain Saffer's informed consent. The jury awarded $1 million in noneconomic damages, $349,000 for future medical expenses, and $186,000 for past medical expenses, totaling $1,535,000. Under Maryland's statutory cap on noneconomic damages, the noneconomic portion was reduced to $725,000, bringing the collectible judgment to approximately $1,260,000.