General Surgeon Fails to Repair Perforated Colon

Case Overview

This case takes place in New York and involves a male patient who presented to the ER with severe abdominal pain, bloating, and fatigue. An X-ray revealed free air in his abdomen suspicious for perforation of the colon or a ruptured ulcer. Despite these worrying findings, the patient received no further care or evaluation for hours. Eventually, A CT scan was performed, which confirmed a perforated colon. Again, the patient’s treatment was delayed, with several hours elapsing before he was brought into the operating room. The patient had become septic in that time and ultimately passed away a few days after the operation.

Questions to the General Surgery expert and their responses

Do you treat patients similar to the one described in the case? Please explain.

As a board certified general surgeon, I regularly perform surgery on perforated diverticulitis. Unfortunately, some patients can present very late in their course, and they are potentially already septic. However, in this case, waiting 9 hours for a condition that is known to require urgent or emergent surgery seems excessive, and suggests a lack of understanding regarding standard of care.

Do you devote more than 50% of your professional time in clinical practice?

Over 70% of my time is clinical practice.

Have you ever served as an expert witness and testified on a case similar to the one described above?

I have served as an expert witness in the past.

About the expert

This expert is a board certified general surgeon who earned his BS and MD from UC Davis. He completed internship training at UCSF, residency training at UCSF, and fellowship training in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. This expert is a member of numerous prestigious societies in the surgical field, most notably as a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. He is currently an Assistant Professor of surgery, Director of the Comprehensive Hernia Center, and an Associate Medical Director at one of the world's top university medical centers.