Woman awarded $4.7 Million in malpractice

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A surgical patient who was seriously injured in the operating room has received a multi-million dollar award.

Susan Kalitan and her attorney held a news conference Friday, a day after winning their $4.7 million in a legal battle. The dental assistant was supposed to be treated for carpal tunnel syndrome in her hand, but something a nursing student did injured the patient's esophagus and left her in a coma, which required several months of medical care, and left her with permanent damage.

Four years ago, Kalitan went in to the Broward General Medical Center for what she thought would be a simple procedure to improve the range of motion in her wrist. The procedure required anesthesia and a tube down her throat. "I planned on going back to work the next day in a cast," she said.

She said a nursing student placed the tube down her throat and ruptured her esophagus. "I thought there might be a student looking, watching, but I had no idea that they would actually be working on me," Kalitan said.

The surgical mistake forced everything she tried to swallow to leak into her chest. Crane Johnstone, the victim's attorney, said, "They punched a hole in the tube that runs down to her tummy where food goes."

A feeding tube provided the only possibility for her to eat, and her life has never been the same. "I have difficulty swallowing," she said. "I have to be careful what I eat. I have a lot of pain and numbness in my upper right side, muscle spasms."

In a statement, Broward General Medical Center stated: "We do not believe the jury reached the correct decision in this case. Ms. Kalitan had an unfortunate yet known complication of anesthesia. It is not indicative of any negligence on the part of her health care providers, and we do not believe that there was negligence or an issue with the standard of care we provided to her."

The hospital plans to appeal the decision and has asked for another trial.

Though Kalitan was awarded millions of dollars, a lot of the money will go to her medical expenses and compensate her for the loss of her job.

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