Woman claims surgeon did nothing, wanted to talk about his driveway

CHARLESTON - A woman representing herself says her doctor talked her into a nose operation then did very little operating, then changed the subject of conversation to his driveway when she inquired why.

Donna Kay Harris claims in a lawsuit filed March 24 in Kanawha Circuit Court that Dr. Augusto Portillio did not remove a growth on the inside of her nose and is seeking more than $50,000.

Harris says she agreed to have a growth removed from the inside of her nose and to have a bump taken off the outside of the nose, but she got cold feet on March 16, 2004, and told Portillio that she was backing out.

Portillo, she said, convinced her to get it done.

"As I was leaving, Dr. Portillo hugged me. I felt as if everything was fine," her self-written complaint says.

The next day, Harris says she had the surgery done. A week later, the bandage was removed.

"I told Portillio 'What have you done?' and he said I wouldn't be happy with anything," she says.

Months later, Harris claims she discovered that she asked about the growth, inquiring if it was cancerous. She says Portillio answered that it wasn't, but she says she later found out that it remained in her nose.

"Later I found out he didn't take out the growth. It is still there," she says. "When I asked him about it he said nothing and began telling me about his driveway.

"He has caused me so much grief, I am sorry I ever seen this man. He did not do anything."
Harris says that she hopes for her nose to be restored and for relief for her surgery and grief in the amount of $50,000.

Judge Paul Zakaib has been assigned the case.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 06-C-568