$1.575 million upheld in hysterectomy suit

SEATTLE – A judge has let stand nearly $1.6 million of a $1.75 million jury award to a 26-year-old woman who said she did not give proper consent when a Centralia osteopathic doctor performed a hysterectomy on her three years ago.

At the same time, King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers granted a new trial to Providence Centralia Hospital, where the procedure was done.

In his Friday ruling, the judge said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ann Deutscher, had committed misconduct at trial. Even though the hospital failed to object to many of Deutcher’s arguments, Rogers said, “the court concludes that many statements made in closing were so manifestly unfair that no instruction could have cured the cumulative prejudicial effect caused by them.”

Rogers said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to warrant a new trial for Dr. Jeffrey Gabel, an osteopathic physician who performed the hysterectomy in 2003 on the plaintiff, Summer Goble, who was 22 at the time.

Gabel’s attorney, Steve Fitzer, said he would likely appeal.

In granting the hospital a new trial, Rogers reduced the original $1.75 million jury award to $1.575 million by subtracting the amount associated with the hospital’s responsibility.

At the time of the original $1.75 million award on May 26, the jury found that Gabel had committed malpractice for performing an unnecessary hysterectomy on Goble.

In addition, the jury found that Gabel had not fully informed Goble of alternative treatments before she signed a consent form acknowledging that she knew the hysterectomy would make her sterile.