Two West Virginia attorneys secured a $1.5 million verdict in a Florida medical malpractice case.
Dante diTrapano and Tim Houston of Calwell Luce diTrapano from Charleston, W.Va., were part of the legal team that represented Michael Wohl, personal representative of the estate of Tracy Wohl, in Alachua County Circuit Court against North Florida Regional Medical Center, Dr. Eric T. Castaldo, Surgical Group of Gainesville, Dr. Sanjeev Bagga, Doctors Radiology Group of Gainesville, Dr. Haseeb R. Jabbar, Gainesville Nocturnists Associates, Dr. Abha Gupta and Hospital Internal Medicine.
The trial was against Bagga, a radiologist, who failed to report an internal hernia and small bowel ischemia on a CT scan of Tracy Wohl, who ultimately died of bowel necrosis. The attorneys settled with the hospital and the surgeon earlier this year.
diTrapano
| Courtesy photo
“We were able to convince the jury that by Dr. Bagga misreading the initial CT scan, that we alleged showed an internal hernia and small bowel obstruction, he pushed a boulder down the hill that no other subsequent treating doctor could stop,” diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “So, by the time anyone figured out what was really going on with Tracy, it was too late and she died of septic shock from small bowel ischemia.”
According to the initial complaint filed in 2022, Tracy Wohl went to the medical center on March 11, 2020, complaining of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. She reported having her gallbladder removed and a Roux en Y surgery, both in 2017.
The next day, she had a CT scan that was reported unremarkable. Bagga found a fluid distended duodenum, free fluid in the pelvic cavity and along the lateral aspect of the posterior segment of the right lobe of the liver as well as in the hepatorenal pouch, thickening of the ascending colon and distended small bowel loops.
DiTrapano says Tracy Wohl then languished for more than 30 hours before hospital staffers figured out how sick she was as “her vitals were going crazy.”
“Shortly thereafter, on March 13, 2020, Dr. Castaldo conducted Tracy Wohl’s first surgical evaluation since her admission at NFRMC,” the complaint states. “Dr. Castaldo charted that Tracy Wohl might be having post-Roux-en-Y complications, and recommended she be transferred to UF Health Shands Hospital, where her Roux-en-Y procedure had been originally performed.”
Because Shands didn’t have an ICU bed immediately available for Wohl, she remained at NFRMC in ICU. An ICU intensivist recommended Castaldo perform an emergent exploratory laparotomy. And 38 minutes later, Castaldo documented his agreement, saying Wohl’s condition “could be detrimental to life.”
But then an ICU bed at Shands became available, and Castaldo endorsed Tracy Wohl’s transfer to Shands instead of performing the laparotomy, according to the complaint.
“Tracy Wohl and Michael Wohl consented as they were not informed that Tracy Wohl’s ‘condition could be detrimental to life,’” the complaint states. “If defendants had informed Tracy Wohl and Michael Wohl that Tracy Wohl’s ‘condition could be detrimental to life,’ Tracy Wohl and Michael Wohl would have never agreed to the transfer. …
“At that time, Tracy Wohl and Michael Wohl were informed that the transfer accompanying documentation, including but not limited to, a disc from radiology and/or the ‘film library’ containing all radiology procedures from Tracy Wohl’s admission, were not ready to accompany Tracy Wohl to Shands Hospital and plans were made to deliver the necessary disc.”
When she arrived at Shands, Tracy Wohl was operated on to have necrotic bowel removed. During a procedure the next day, doctors found necrotic tissue spread over her entire small bowel and colon. As a result, they determined she was terminal. Tracy Wohl died on March 17, 2020, of ischemic bowel injury and sepsis.
Tracy Wohl, 56, was a longtime employee of Gainesville Regional Utility and is survived by her husband of 26 years as well as their two children.
DiTrapano said the defendants took the position that Bagga read the CT scan within the standard of care and that, even if he didn’t, the hospitalist, surgeon, hospitals, and transfer people were to blame.
The trial was set for October 7 but was postponed because of Hurricane Milton. The rescheduled trial started November 4, and the verdict was handed down late November 7. The jury found Bagga liable and awarded the family $1,500,000.
“It was especially satisfying to bring justice to this family as the defendant never offered a penny to resolve the case and aggressively defended it for the last three years,” diTrapano said. “This case was especially satisfying for me as a lawyer returning to Gainesville, Florida, by absolute happenstance, where I went to undergraduate college, and try a case in that venue.”
Charles Telfair and Nick Sato from Lutz Bobo Telfair in Sarasota were Florida trial counsel in the case.
Alachua County Circuit Court case number 2022-CA-003738