Jury: Surgery center more culpable in lawsuit

The forewoman of a Douglas County jury that returned a $1.63 million verdict in favor of a 72-year-old colonoscopy patient said the panel felt the center that allowed the unsupervised procedure was more culpable for the woman's botched operation.

"The jury found the majority of the responsibility was with the Lake Tahoe Surgery Center," said JoAnn Orange. "They didn't do their jobs."

Orange said Wednesday the jury found that the Stateline facility failed to make sure Dr. Thomas A. Goldenberg was supervised as he performed the procedure on Georgia Woodard of Gardnerville in March 2005.

"The center didn't make sure he was doing the procedure under the supervision of a doctor who had been trained. Part of the provision was that he had to be proctored by another doctor."

She said none of the jurors had doubts about Goldenberg's qualifications as a obstetrician/gynecologist.

"The problem was he was doing a procedure outside his scope of training, education and experience. He was negligent," she said. "There was no question of that."

She said the jury of two women and six men was asked to assign percentages to what extent Goldenberg and the surgery center were responsible.

"Believe it or not, the majority assigned 80 percent responsibility to the surgery center and 20 percent to the doctor," Orange said.

Woodard's colonoscopy was the third procedure performed by Goldenberg. Protocol calls for a doctor to be under the supervision of another physician until he or she has performed 100 of the procedures.

Orange said jurors voted 7-1 to find in favor of Woodard. Because it was a civil case, a unanimous verdict was not required.

Woodard suffered a perforated colon that required another operation. She spent months in a hospital and rehabilitation center recovering.

The jury returned the verdict Monday after a three-week trial and nine hours of deliberation before District Judge Dave Gamble.