An Indiana physician was found negligent and ordered to pay more than $2.6 million to a patient after a botched cardiac catheterization left the patient's right leg "disfigured and virtually unusable," wane.com reported May 26.
The lawsuit against Shashi Ahuja, MD, was originally filed in 2014. The patient, Zandra Chapman, underwent a cardiac catheterization procedure in 2012 and claimed Dr. Ahuja mishandled a then new device to perform the procedure and negligently left a polymer in Ms. Chapman's artery.
After the procedure, Ms. Chapman experienced intense pain in her right calf that became worse. According to the report, Ms. Chapman went to the emergency room after three days, where a physician performed surgery and found foreign material in an artery of her leg. The physician determined the material had been left in the patient's femoral artery before it traveled to another artery and became lodged, leading to at least one blood clot, according to court documents.
Physicians were unable to restore blood flow to the artery after two attempts. Ms. Chapman's lower right leg became disfigured, according to the report.
In May, the 10-day jury trial commenced and the jury found Dr. Ahuja was negligent. They awarded Ms. Chapman $2.67 million in damages.