3 Must Repay $320,000 to Malpractice Victim

In a case the judge said would be unbelievable as a Hollywood script, more than $320,000 was ordered returned Wednesday to a fund for the benefit of a young woman who suffered brain damage during a botched wisdom tooth extraction.

Todd Pannkuk, estranged husband of Donna Pannkuk, 31, and his parents, Stanley and Eloise Pannkuk, were ordered to return the money, which the judge found had been improperly spent from a $1.96-million fund set up in her behalf.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Henry T. Moore Jr. issued a tentative ruling Wednesday in the case, finding that much of $77,000 Todd Pannkuk had spent from his wife’s conservatorship was used to buy illegal drugs. Todd Pannkuk was ordered to pay back part of that amount.

The fund was created after a number of defendants settled a malpractice lawsuit filed after Donna underwent oral surgery in 1984. The suit alleged that she suffered brain damage after she was given nitrous oxide--laughing gas--instead of oxygen during the procedure. According to the lawsuit, she was the first patient to be treated in newly remodeled dental facilities in which the valves for the two gases had been reversed. She suffered oxygen deprivation, was in a coma for several days and suffered brain damage.

Todd Pannkuk and his parents were named conservators of the $1.96-million fund composed of payments by various defendants to settle the lawsuit. The three were removed by court order after records of disbursements and receipts could not be completely accounted for.

Moore ordered all three, as former conservators, to pay back a total of $286,808 that he found had been improperly disbursed.

The three were replaced as conservators by Sanwa Bank California, represented by lawyer Marjorie Le Gaye.

Donna Pannkuk has a 2-year-old daughter, lives with her parents and “is doing well,” Le Gaye said Wednesday. About $1 million remains in the conservatorship, which, when the other funds are repaid, should provide enough for her lifetime, Le Gaye said.

On Wednesday, Moore referred to Todd Pannkuk as a “cocaine addict” who spent money from the fund to buy the drug, according to the court clerk. His wife, whose injury has affected her memory, also took the drug, Pannkuk said.

Moore decided that Todd Pannkuk’s parents “sat idly by” while the expenditures mounted.

Moore also sharply reduced the legal fee to be paid to attorney David Warren, who represented Donna Pannkuk in her 1984 lawsuit and successfully negotiated the $1.96-million settlement.

Moore decided that Warren’s “reasonable” fee should be 25% of the settlement, and he voided a retainer agreement for 33%. Moore was sharply critical of Warren’s role in the Pannkuk case, stating that he failed to tell the court about improper expenditures, according to the court clerk.