Medical Malpractice – Patient sustains injuries during gallbladder removal

Injuries alleged: Transected common bile duct and gallbladder tissue

Date resolved: June 13, 2025

Amount: $1.2 million

Attorney for plaintiff: Jonathan L. Thornton, Pierce & Thornton, Virginia Beach

Case description: The plaintiff, age 76, presented to the emergency department with complaints of abdominal pain radiating to the back. The emergency room physician diagnosed gallstones with concerns for cholecystitis and consulted general surgery. A laparoscopic cholecystectomy was recommended and performed. Extensive adhesive disease was noted by the defendant, a general surgeon. The defendant opted not to convert to an “open” procedure during the surgery despite difficulty with dissection, nor was a cholangiogram performed to identify and distinguish the common bile duct from the cystic duct.

In the days following surgery, the plaintiff developed significant abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Pathology from the laparoscopic surgery revealed the presence of common bile duct and gallbladder tissue. The plaintiff was referred to a second surgeon for emergency surgical exploration, leading to a diagnosis of a transected common bile duct and right hepatic artery. Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy was performed to reconstruct the plaintiff’s biliary system. While the second surgery was successful in restoring the flow of bile from the liver to the small intestine, the loss of the right hepatic artery resulted in the plaintiff developing recurrent liver abscesses requiring several subsequent hospital admissions for paracentesis and IV antibiotic therapy.

The plaintiff retained two general surgery experts who opined that the defendant violated the standard of care by failing to obtain the critical view of safety during the procedure; by failing to perform an intraoperative cholangiogram due to the highly inflamed, scarred nature of the gallbladder; and by failing to convert the procedure to an open procedure, which would have prevented the biliary and vascular injuries to the plaintiff.

Prior to serving the complaint, the case resolved for $1.2 million at a mediation with The McCammon Group.