$1.63 million award to Gardnerville woman for botched colonoscopy

A 72-year-old Gardnerville woman who underwent a colonoscopy on the advice of her gynecologist was awarded $1.6 million by a Douglas County District Court jury who agreed with her that the doctor was negligent after he perforated her colon during the procedure.

After nine hours of deliberation over two days, the jury returned the verdict Monday in favor of Georgia Woodard in her civil lawsuit against Dr. Thomas A. Goldenberg who performed the colonoscopy in March 2005.

"I'm delighted," Woodard said after the three-week trial. "I think they believed the truth. There were some misconceptions put out, and I think they came to a fair verdict."

Goldenberg's lawyer, Thomas Doyle of Sacramento, did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.

Woodard, who had been a patient of Goldenberg's since 2000, underwent the surgery on March 9, 2005.

According to court records, she began vomiting on the way home from the Lake Tahoe Surgery Center at Stateline immediately after Goldenberg performed the colonoscopy, and her husband Herschel had to stop their car on Kingsbury Grade.

"I went for the procedure and I felt pain, and you should not feel pain with a colonoscopy," she said. "Afterwards I asked about it, and I was told there was a 'tricky spot' and it would go away. It didn't go away.

"Eight days later I went to the emergency room in unbelievable pain, and they transferred me next to the hospital. I just went into a coma. I don't remember any of it."

Herschel Woodard kept a diary and calendar of his wife's ordeal from March through December 2005.

On March 19, 2005, a doctor at Barton Memorial Hospital advised him "she might not make it," and suggested he summon their children to her bedside.

"I went home feeling I had already lost Georgia. It was one hell of a bad, sad, feeling," he wrote.

The next day, Woodard had surgery to repair the half-dollar-sized perforation and clean out her colon, and she began her slow recovery.

Woodard said Monday she was anticipating about half the jury award, but she would trade all of it not to have suffered as she did.

"You spend 2-1/2 months in one hospital or another before you get to see your home again, and when you get home you're not like you were, and you have to fight for every step to get your strength back," she said.

Woodard credited her family and friends for standing by her during the lawsuit and her recovery which is ongoing.

"It was a very trying experience, it's not something you take on lightly," Woodard said. "I had a very good attorney, and he kept me abreast of everything that was going on. My friends and family supported me 100 percent in this."

Woodard's lawyer, Peter Durney of Reno, said she raised two issues in her lawsuit.

"The verdict is a two-pronged contention: Dr. Thomas A. Goldenberg was negligent in the performance of the colonoscopy in that her perforated her colon, and Georgia contended he was not qualified and misrepresented his qualifications," Durney said.

Durney said Goldenberg had performed two colonoscopies before he did Woodard's procedure.

Durney said minimum medical standard is 100 colonoscopies under the guidance of an instructor before a doctor is eligible to apply for hospital privileges.

"This man had done two and he didn't tell her. He is a gynecologist performing outside the scope of his practice a procedure traditionally reserved for a gastroenterologist," Durney said.

Both Durney and Woodard expect the verdict to be appealed.

Durney said Nevada voters passed an initiative petition in 2004 that a jury or court cannot award more than $350,000 damages for pain and suffering against a doctor.

The $1.6 million award is one of the highest for medical malpractice in Douglas County history, Durney said.

If Goldenberg's lawyer appeals on those grounds, Durney said he's prepared to argue the law is unconstitutional.

"I may wind up with nothing," Woodard said. "Just because it's an award doesn't mean I am going to have anything. I understand that. At least the truth came out and that's what I wanted."