Ex-Neurosurgeon With Failing Sight Accused of Causing Brain Damage

A former chief administrator at the UCI Medical Center was blamed for allegedly botching a neurosurgical procedure on a patient who now suffers from permanent brain damage, according a suit filed Thursday.

Claude Herring and his wife accuse Dr. Mike Dogali, then-head of UCI’s Medical Center’s neurology department, of failing to disclose that he had a visual impairment, according to the suit filed in Orange County Superior Court.

“This is a tragic incident which could have been prevented by UCI Medical Center maintaining oversight responsibilities over their operating surgeons’ qualifications,” said the Herrings’ lawyer, Larry Eisenberg.

The suit names Dogali and the medical center as defendants.

Dogali on Thursday declined to comment on the suit but said the accusations are unfounded. University officials said they could not comment on a pending case.

The suit alleges that Herring suffered a brain hemorrhage and other complications in January after surgery performed by Dogali.

Herring, 67, has Parkinson’s disease and was recommended by Dogali to undergo a pallidotomy, a delicate surgical procedure that requires the use of computerized equipment. Herring said in the suit that he would not have agreed to the operation had he known about Dogali’s vision problems.

Dogali said Thursday that he was diagnosed with glaucoma in 1991. His eye condition was not severe until it worsened last February, after Herring’s operation, Dogali said. The following April, Dogali said in an interview that he then resigned from his UCI job because the glaucoma “limits my abilities as a surgeon.”

But on Thursday, Dogali said that a pallidotomy is a high-tech procedure that relies more on computer calculations than the human eye. The surgery involves inserting a probe through a hole in the patient’s skull and guiding the instrument to a target area of the brain to stimulate proper function.

“Pallidotomy has nothing to do with vision,” Dogali said on Thursday. “This is something that can be done with one eye, or even with half an eye because you are using the computer to direct the surgery.”

Dogali said pallidotomies have a 2% to 6% risk factor and can result in complications such as a brain hemorrhage.

The lawsuit states that Herring, a former construction superintendent, could no longer work after the surgery. The Herrings are seeking an undetermined sum in damages.