Woman blames surgeon for perforated bowel

CHARLESTON - A woman is suing her surgeon after she claims he failed to perform all the indicated pre-operative testing and caused her injuries.

Judy Wyatt began treatment with Dr. Ahmad Bali in fall 2010 for symptoms associated with her recurrent hiatal hernia, according to a complaint filed March 21 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Wyatt claims Bali failed to perform all the indicated pre-operative testing and failed to conduct a thorough pre-operative assessment on her.

Bali was required to consider Wyatt's medical and surgical issues in constructing his surgical plan and was required to develop an appropriate surgical plan that would be safe and effective for her, according to the suit.

Wyatt claims because Bali did not complete appropriate pre-operative testing, an appropriate pre-operative assessment and failed to consider her medical and surgical issues in the development of a safe and effective pre-operative plan, his initial surgical approach failed.

During Wyatt's surgery on Feb. 14, 2011, Bali attempted to take down Wyatt's prior stomach wrap, recreate the stomach wrap and repair Wyatt's hiatal hernia using a laparoscopic approach, which failed and Bali had to convert the surgery to an open abdominal procedure, according to the suit.

Wyatt claims once the procedure was converted to an open abdominal approach, Bali was still not able to repair her hiatal hernia from solely an abdominal approach and a combined open abdominal and thoracic approach was required to repair the hernia.

Bali did not possess the training, education and skill to qualify him to perform the surgery Wyatt needed to safely and effectively repair her hiatal hernia, according to the suit.

Wyatt claims in the middle of her surgery, a thoracic surgeon had to be located, contacted and approved by the hospital to perform surgery on an emergency basis and after the thoracic surgeon arrived, Bali closed her abdomen and, in the process of performing this portion of the surgery, Bali perforated her large intestine and did not diagnose the bowel that he had perforated at the time he closed her abdomen.

Bail failed to timely investigate and diagnose Wyatt's perforated large intestine until Feb. 24, 2011, when she had to undergo surgery to repair her large intestine and had to have almost her entire colon removed, according to the suit.

Wyatt is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. She is being represented by Tony L. O'Dell of Tiano O'Dell PLLC and Brent K. Kesner of Kesner & Kesner.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Charles E. King.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 13-C-548