Medical Malpractice Patient suffers complications from improper cyst removal

$500,000 settlement

Injuries alleged: Wrong site surgery/procedure

Name of mediator: Justice Jane Marum Roush (Ret.)

Date resolved: April 30, 2026

Special damages: $16,623.68

Amount: $500,000

Attorneys for plaintiff: Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman Jr.,
Williamsburg, Waterman Law Centers

Case description: The patient, a woman in her mid-30s, consented to surgical removal of a cyst on her mid-back. But the general surgeon mischaracterized the sebaceous (nodule) cyst as a pilonidal (tract) cyst, failed to mark and verify the site pre-operatively, and prepped and removed good tissue from patient’s upper buttocks crack 10 inches to 12 inches lower than the cyst, despite supposedly confirming the correct site and procedure by post-anesthesia, pre-incision timeout.

The patient’s surgical wound healed after several treatments and months, yet patient still complains that the scar is unsightly and pulls on adjacent soft tissue. The patient subsequently had the mid-back cyst drained and then removed, suffering infection-
related complications and treatments for months. The patient feared and therefore declined cosmetic laser treatments to improve the buttocks scar.

The patient sued solely for general damages for negligence, plus for punitive damages for medical battery. Defendants ultimately admitted liability, contested punitive damages, denied responsibility for the remedial surgery complications, highlighted patient already was heavily scarred and tattooed, and sought to introduce the medical bills toward minimizing damages.