Former Champaign woman awarded more than $2.9 million
URBANA — A jury has awarded a former Champaign woman more than $2.9 million from Carle Clinic Association and a former orthopedic surgeon at Carle following a knee replacement surgery that went bad.
Following three and a half hours of deliberation, a Champaign County jury ruled on Tuesday afternoon that Carla Barnwell, who now lives in Chicago, should receive $2,926,747.75, including $176,747.75 for medical bills, $1.25 million for past and future pain and suffering, and $1.5 million for past and future loss of normal life experience.
"When a patient has concerns about care received, those concerns are carefully evaluated," Carle spokeswoman Jennifer Hendricks Kaufmann said on Tuesday. "In this instance, we believed the medical care was appropriate, and our belief was supported by a board certified orthopedic surgeon. Our legal system allows for differences of opinion and in this case the jury disagreed with our determination."
Barnwell's attorney, Ryan Yagoda of Chicago, said that former Carle orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Dangles performed a partial knee replacement surgery on Barnwell on May 8, 2007.
Carle spokesman Sean Williams said on Tuesday afternoon that Dangles no longer works for Carle.
Yagoda said the partial knee replacement surgery was designed to repair one compartment of Barnwell's knee.
He said that Dangles put a piece of metal on the femur into Barnwell's knee joint at a bad angle, cutting off 30 to 40 percent of the woman's kneecap.
When Barnwell still couldn't straighten her leg six weeks following her surgery, she got a second opinion at Northwestern Orthopaedic Institute in Chicago.
Two doctors from the institute, Dr. Raju S. Ghate and Dr. Victoria Brander, testified by videotape that "they had never seen a femoral component angled this badly," Yagoda said.
As a result, Barnwell had to have her partial knee replacement taken out and converted to a total knee replacement, Yagoda said.
He added that Barnwell also developed a condition called arthrofibrosis, which involves excessive scar tissue building up in the joint, as a result of the partial knee replacement surgery.
"She needed two surgeries to get her knee back to normal function," Yagoda said. "The two doctors testified she is permanently disabled and will have pain for the rest of her life."
Judge Jeff Ford presided at the trial.
Imagine Jennifer Hendricks Kaufmann stating they felt they did everything right. They said the same thing after my dad was diagnosed twice (from Carle and from Mayo) of cancer yet they electronicall misfiled both letters therefore torturing my dad and taking advantage of Medicare for all unnecessary care, treatment and surgeries trying to find what was causing his rapid decline, leading to a quick painful death. They too told us they felt they did everything right and the Dr's at the time all backed each other. Every lawyer that asked was told that dad would have died from that cancer anyway, so we were told we had no case. It wasn't until we we took a "former" Carle Doc to court through the state of Illinois that he was found guilty and testomny from another "former" Carle Doc stating that had the right care been administered for cancer from the dates that these letters were originially received, dad's outcome would have been different. Carle got lucky that the statute of limitations had run out (or so we were told).
DO YOUR RESEARCH! Investigate your surgeons because Carle doesn't. ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING and ASK FOR COPIES ! They won't like it but do it to protect yourself and loved ones
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