Malpractice suit award reduced to $1.9 million

WINCHESTER- A judge Friday reduced a $3 million medical malpractice jury verdict against a local gynecologist to $1.9 million because of a state law capping such awards.

According to the lawsuit complaint, former city resident Shannon E. Taylor, 39, was injured when a hysterectomy performed by Winchester physician Katherine Averill went awry.

"This poor woman was pretty badly injured, and [the defense] thought she should accept it as a risk, an acceptable surgical error," attorney Barbara S. Williams said in May. "She had her vagina stitched to her rectum. How could that be acceptable?"

According to the complaint, Averill - who closed her Winchester Womancare practice at 212 Linden Drive in November - performed surgery on Taylor July 18, 2007, in a Winchester Medical Center operating room.

During the hysterectomy - an operation to remove a patient's uterus - Averill allegedly placed sutures that connected Taylor's vagina and rectal wall, and lacerated her rectum.

According to Taylor's other attorney, Roger Creager, she realized something was wrong in the days after the surgery when she began to experience rectal bleeding.

After examinations showed that her rectum had been damaged by the stitches, Taylor needed several painful surgeries to correct the problem, including a colostomy procedure.

Because of the repeated surgeries to her abdomen, she also developed a hernia. And according to Creager, the time away from work caused by the surgeries led to Taylor having to leave her job.

"Plaintiff Taylor...has been prevented from transacting her business and her household duties, [and] has suffered and will continue to suffer physical pain and mental anguish," the complaint states.

Taylor incurred losses of $125,000 in medical costs and lost wages because of the surgical error.

The jury announced the $3 million verdict after a three-day trial in May.

Although Taylor's attorneys were pleased with the verdict, they said at the time that the amount would likely be reduced under the medical malpractice cap.

Taylor's attorney's filed a brief arguing that the cap was unconstitutional, but Judge John R. Prosser rejected their argument, along with a motion by the defendant to have the case thrown out.

The final judgment of $1,925,000 is the precise amount allowed under the malpractice cap at the time of the suit.

- Contact Monty Tayloe at mtayloe@winchesterstar.com