$68 Million Award
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A court has awarded $66 million to the family of a mother of four who died due to complications from plastic surgery.
In November of 2019, Idalia Corcoles went to 63rd Medical and Surgical Center for liposuction, and found Dr. Ayoub Sayeg performing the surgery out of his office, according to her family's attorneys at Clifford Law Offices.
During her operation, something went wrong, and she started bleeding internally.
In court, the doctor testified that he never saw Corcoles after the surgery, and didn't spot the physical signs of internal bleeding.
"They essentially abandoned her in the recovery room," said attorney Brad Cosgrove. "This is a case about unrecognized and untreated blood loss that went on for hours and hours and hours, and she essentially was allowed to bleed to death."
On Friday, a Cook County jury awarded Corcoles' family $56 million in damages. With post-judgment interest, the court entered a judgment against the doctor for $66.262 million, which is believed to be a record in Cook County against a plastic surgeon, and perhaps the largest medical malpractice verdict in Illinois history.
Corcoles, who was 39, leaves behind a husband and four children.
The family's attorney said Dr. Sayeg is still practicing, but the jury's verdict will trigger a state investigation.
If you've ever seen liposuction done, you can see how, in
unskilledincompetent hands, there might be unrecognized bleeding.Another take:
The Clifford firm claimed that, "despite warning signs of lowering blood pressure and abnormal breathing, Dr. Sayeg never came to check on" Corcoles and instead "moved on to the next surgery."
Less than five hours later, Corcoles was taken by ambulance to Advocate Christ Hospital. She died the next day, allegedly as a result of severe internal abdominal bleeding.
At trial, the jury awarded Corcoles' family $56 million in damages. Pre-judgment interest under Illinois law would add an additional $10 million to the total slated to be received by the family, according to the Clifford firm.
The firm noted it is believed the verdict marks the largest such sum awarded against a plastic surgeon in Illinois history.
In a statement following the verdict, attorney Bradley M. Cosgrove, of the Clifford firm, said: "The negligence of this medical practitioner is so egregious that the jury knew they had to do the right thing for this innocent family. The jury obviously is sending a clear message that Dr. Sayeg ignored obvious signs that this patient was dying and yet he and the entire team did nothing to save her."
And another:
According to the lawsuit, Sayeg's significant failings included not performing a complete physical exam before surgery, not obtaining necessary medical clearance, and erroneously executing the operation leading to a perforation of Corcoles' abdominal wall and a spleen laceration, Dr. Sayeg also admitted he never checked on Corcoles following the surgery; as pointed out by the CBS News report, the physician had testified that he failed to see the signs of internal bleeding post-operation and Corcoles was, in essence, left to fend for herself during what transformed into a fatal recovery process.
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Here's what I don't get.
First of all, it's not uncommon, especially in an outpatient setting, to drop off a patient in PACU (Recovery Room) and hustle off to your next procedure.
But, there are questions.
First of all, I assume this was done under general anesthesia. Liposuction under local ain't fun. Did the PACU staff notify the anesthesiologist that the patient was unstable?
Did they notify the surgeon?
If the patient was unstable, as I gather from the papers, why was she discharged home, rather than to a hospital? I only worked in one outpatient center - the kidney stone center. If there was ANY question of stability, you got admitted to the hospital. It's not reported, but I'm surprised that the outpatient center didn't have any legal exposure. Had I been the patient, I would have included them in the suit for not recognizing something as being "off."
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$68M sounds good, but how are they going to get it?
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@Jolly said in $68 Million Award:
$68M sounds good, but how are they going to get it?
The doc probably carried a $1M/$3M policy - One million per claim, and three claims per year.
It's possible they go after his personal assets, but that's unlikely.
Like I said, I'm surprised the facility didn't get sued. They had a lot of exposure.
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