Portland, US – 4th August, 2017: A Multnomah County jury this week awarded a married couple more than $4.5 million after the husband suffered lifelong injuries from a failed spinal surgery.
Jason Croff said Tualatin neurosurgeon Warren Roberts is responsible for what appear to be irreversible injuries: The 30-year-old can now urinate only with great difficulty and suffers from numbness to his genital area, which has seriously altered his sex life with his wife.
After an eight-day trial, a Circuit Court jury on Wednesday found that Roberts and his practice, Aspen Spine and Neurosurgery Center, were negligent. The jury awarded about $94,000 in economic losses to Croff and $3.5 million to him in noneconomic damages for pain and suffering.
The jury also awarded his 30-year-old wife, Kassandra Kroff, $1 million for loss of consortium with her husband.
The Croffs met in high school when they were 15 and married shortly after high school, their attorney said. They live in Coos Bay.
In court papers, an attorney for Roberts, John Pollino, argued that Judge John Wittmayer should reduce the verdict by $4 million because a 2016 Oregon Supreme Court ruling limits plaintiffs from collecting more than $500,000 in noneconomic damages. That $500,000 cap was set in 1987 and hasn’t been adjusted since.
The Croffs' Portland attorney, David K. Miller, said such a reduction would undermine the jury, which heard all of the facts and determined that the Croffs were due $4.5 million for their altered lives.
This spring, state legislators debated a few options, such as abolishing the $500,000 cap or raising it to $10 million. But the bill died.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys plan to lobby the Legislature again next year.
Miller said if the Croffs’ verdicts are reduced by $4 million they will get virtually nothing after paying insurers, attorney’s fees and $100,000 in case expenses.
"As a trial lawyer, I think this is something people should know about,” he said.
Jason Croff’s medical troubles began when he started experiencing back pain. In September 2013, his primary-care doctor referred him to Roberts at Aspen Spine and Neurosurgery Center in Tualatin. In October 2013, Roberts performed surgery with the plan to remove a disc from Croff’s spine. Croff was 27 at the time.
Croff contends that Roberts botched the surgery, in part by failing to remove the disc and failing to tell him about it. That led to his worsening symptoms and his now permanent trouble urinating and numbness.
Roberts contended that he did tell Croff that he couldn’t remove his disc and that he would need future surgery. In court papers, Roberts’ attorney argued that Croff couldn’t prove that his medical conditions were Roberts’ fault.
“We believe the standard of care was met, as our experts testified,” said Pollino, Roberts’ Salem attorney.
Roberts noted in pretrial depositions that he is no longer performing neurosurgery and is examining patients during house calls, Miller said.
According to a $24 million lawsuit that Roberts filed in July against Legacy Health and Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center, he claims that his privileges at the hospital were revoked as part of a "sham" process, driven in part by racism and the desire of other doctors to remove him as competition. Roberts is African American.
"No one will even consider him as a neurosurgeon due to the toxic adverse actions reports in the NPDB (National Practitioner Data Bank)," Roberts' lawsuit states.
Roberts has been practicing medicine since 2001, according to Oregon Medical Board records. He is in his mid-40s.
According to the Oregon Medical Board’s website, the board issued a notice of proposed disciplinary action against Roberts in 2014 and 2015 for alleged “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, and gross or repeated acts of negligence.” But records weren't immediately available into the details of the cases.
Jurors weren’t allowed to hear about those cases after the judge ruled they weren't relevant to Croff’s lawsuit.
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/08/husband_wife_awarded_45_millio.html