CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County couple is suing a surgeon they claim was negligent during surgery.
On April 15, 2014, Dr. Michael Boustany failed to perform an appropriate surgical procedure on Tamara Bowen, according to a complaint filed May 6 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Tamara Bowen and Timothy Bowen claim that in 2009 Boustany performed a lysis of adhesions followed by an incisional hernia repair with intraperitoneal placement of Composite mesh. In 2010, he performed exploratory laparotomy with lysis of adhesions for a small bowel obstruction followed by a repair of her recurrent incisional hernia.
In 2013, Tamara Bowen saw him in his office and he noted that she had a one-year-old, painful bulge located to the right of her prior abdominal incision. In 2014, she saw him again with persistence of her painful, worsening, recurrent incisional hernia, according to the suit.
The Bowens claim despite not having successfully repaired the incisional hernias on two prior occasions, and knowing that Tamara Bowen had had multiple abdominal surgeries in the past, he scheduled her for the 2014 surgery, where he made a hole in her bowel and failed to recognize the hole he had made and failed to repair it.
The surgeon’s failure to inspect for, see and fix a hole he had made in the patient during the surgery exposed her to a high risk of medical problems, including infection, sepsis and even death, according to the suit.
The Bowens claim Boustany was negligent, careless, reckless, and incompetent.
The Bowens are seeking compensatory damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. They are being represented by Tony L. O’Dell and Cheryl A. Fisher of Tiano O’Dell PLLC.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Charles King.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 16-C-689