A federal jury on Friday refused to award any money to a West Virginia man alleging a Maryland doctor mistakenly stapled his rectum shut during an operation, causing him to go without defecating for 17 days.
The U.S. District Court jury in Baltimore found that Dr. Manuel Casiano, who practices at Frederick Memorial Hospital, was not responsible for permanent bowel problems suffered by Ronald Watkins, 64.
On Thursday, Casiano testified that he did not believe it was possible for him to have stapled Watkins’ rectum shut — as the attorneys for Watkins alleged.
“I just don’t see how you can staple shut the bowel from the inside,” he testified, after explaining the specifics of the operation. “Technically, I just don’t think that’s possible.”
The jury’s verdict left Watkins “devastated,” said Emily Malarkey, one of his attorneys.
“We’re all shocked,” she said. “The evidence that it was stapled was so overwhelming I don’t know how any reasonable jury could have concluded it was swollen.”
Attorney Julia Lodowski, who also represents Watkins, had told jurors that Casiano botched a 2005 surgery leaving Watkins experiencing “rectal discharge” and needing to wipe himself between 12 and 15 times day.
Among other problems, Watkins needed to have four “unnecessary surgeries” because of Casiano’s actions, Lodowski added.
Four days after the Sept. 8, 2004 surgery in question, Watkins complained of increasing rectal pressure, and an inability to pass gas, his lawsuit states.
In a subsequent surgery, Casiano found that Watkins’ rectum was closed because of staples, according to the lawsuit.
“He couldn’t get past the staple line,” Lodowski said.
But the doctor’s attorney, Conrad Varner, said Watkins’ bowels merely became “swollen shut” because of medical problems — not because of stapling. Varner said Watkins’ habitual smoking — two packs a day — contributed to his bowel problems, because nicotine constricts blood vessels.
Casiano testified that, in his view, the Sept. 8 surgery — in which the doctor removed a newly diagnosed rectal tumor — went “very well.”
“I took it out before it could turn to cancer,” he said.
Watkins plans to file motions for a new trial and to reverse the jury’s verdict, Malarkey said.
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