$24-Million Verdict in Malpractice Suit : Courts: Jury rules in favor of Huntington Beach woman left blind, paralyzed and mute after surgery she didn’t OK. Doctor used unauthorized pump with water instead of an approved fluid to save $5.

A 31-year-old woman left blind, paralyzed and mute after surgery in what started as a routine diagnostic test will receive about $24 million over her lifetime under a malpractice verdict Friday believed to be the largest of its kind in Orange County history.

The Superior Court jury deliberated more than two days before reaching the verdict in favor of Jennifer Hamel of Huntington Beach, a marketing employee who suffered severe brain damage two years ago while undergoing a test to determine why she was experiencing such heavy menstrual bleeding, said Cornelius P. Bahan, an attorney representing Hamel and her parents.

The jury, in a unanimous vote, split liability nearly in half between OutPatient Surgery Center in Huntington Beach and Dr. William Keel, who was accused of leaving Hamel in the middle of the surgical crisis under the assumption she was having a problem with anesthesia, Bahan said. The jury exonerated the anesthesiologist of any liability.

Bahan said Hamel remains in a “helpless” state in a Long Beach facility, but her parents, Mike and Joyce Hamel of South Gate, now will be able to bring her home under the care of full-time nurses.

“It’s everyone’s absolute worst nightmare,” Bahan said. “She’s incapacitated and can’t communicate . . . she’s essentially trapped.”

An attorney for OutPatient Surgery said what happened to Hamel was a tragedy and jurors were bound to be sympathetic, but that the center should not have been held liable and had no reason to believe the doctor was doing anything unsafe.

“The doctor picked the procedure, he did not tell us he was going into an operative phase, and we were surprised,” attorney Mark Franzen said.

Steve Hillyard, an attorney for Keel, was unavailable for comment. Bahan said Keel is now practicing in Illinois.

On May 21, 1993, Hamel, then 29, went to the surgery center for a test to determine why she was having such heavy periods. According to an account by Bahan, Hamel was told she needed to undergo a quick exploratory procedure known as a D & C. During the procedure, Keel claimed he found a large “fibroid” tumor in her uterus and decided, without consulting a specialist or getting Hamel’s approval, to operate, Bahan said.

The plaintiffs contended that Keel used a high-pressure pump during the surgery that was unauthorized for such use and that the pump was filled with sterile water instead of an approved fluid to save about $5.

During the surgery, Keel allegedly cut into the wall of Hamel’s uterus and the pump pushed the sterile water into her blood system, filling her lungs with water and causing her heart to stop.

Bahan said oxygen was cut off to Hamel’s brain for 15 to 30 minutes, causing severe damage that is most likely permanent.

At one point during the height of the crisis, Bahan said, the doctor left for another appointment in Newport Beach and did not return despite calls from nurses at the Surgery Center. Hamel eventually was taken by paramedics to Huntington Beach Medical Center.

The defendants during the trial called medical experts who contended that Hamel suffered a rare allergic reaction to a drug used routinely in the diagnostic procedures, Franzen said.

Hamel’s life expectancy also was disputed during the trial, although the jury found she could live until 65, Bahan said. Since she was injured, Hamel has been able to twitch her face and blink, and even cried once during a 1994 New Year’s Eve party at the medical facility where she lives, he said.

“She has made remarkable progress over the last year and is increasingly noted by the nurses and parents to be more responsive and alert,” Bahan said, adding that one expert said she is “somewhere between a completely aware ‘locked-in patient’ and the totally unaware ‘vegetative’ patient described by the defense.”

Over the course of Hamel’s lifetime, the verdict payments, presently valued at $9.6 million, will total about $24 million, the attorneys said.