Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Surgical mistake nets $475,000 award

A California man has won a $475,000 judgment from a Las Vegas doctor who performed an appendectomy on him but failed to remove the appendix.

The jury in District Judge Myron Leavitt's courtroom deliberated about three hours late Friday after a week-long trial before returning the verdict against Dr. Michael Peikoff.

His failure to remove the infected organ -- although he had surgically severed it and stitched the stump -- resulted in an abscess that worked its way through the abdominal wall.

"It ate its way to the outside world," said attorney Gary Lipsman, who represented John Brushwood in the medical malpractice case over the 1990 surgery. "He had a hole in his stomach one to two inches across for five months."

Lipsman said when the abscess refused to heal after a variety of treatments, exploratory surgery was performed by his California doctor.

What she found, Lipsman said, was the appendix sitting just two inches from where it had been severed.

Once it was extracted, Brushwood recovered fully, according to trial testimony.

Peikoff's attorneys offered several explanations for the incident but the jury bought none of them, compensating Brushwood for his past medical expenses and his pain and suffering.

Testimony indicated that Peikoff had removed some fatty tissue during the emergency operation that was performed at Desert Springs Hospital shortly before Christmas 1990 when Brushwood became ill while on vacation.

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