Shoemaker Surgery Is Questioned

A general surgeon who had testified earlier that Bill Shoemaker had undergone unnecessary stomach surgery backtracked Monday by saying that it would have been wrong for the operating-room physician to ignore that the former jockey had lost perhaps 30% of the blood in his body.

Under cross-examination from attorney Steve Van Sicklen toward the end of the day, Dr. John Wilson strayed from his earlier testimony that suggested Shoemaker’s spinal-cord injuries had been overlooked while Dr. Alfonso Miguel did a 70-minute abdominal operation.

Miguel is one of seven doctors being sued by Shoemaker for more than $50 million. Another defendant in the malpractice suit in Los Angles County Superior Court is Glendora Community Hospital, where Shoemaker was rushed after his Ford Bronco II went down a 30-foot embankment in San Dimas six years ago in a single-car accident. Shoemaker, who won a record 8,833 races before his retirement from riding, is a quadriplegic who has continued his training career from a wheelchair.

With Miguel looking on from a second-row seat, Wilson said that Shoemaker’s symptoms resembled shock, but not spinal shock. A witness for Shoemaker, Wilson said that he has testified at more than 100 trials--for plaintiffs and defense--and is paid $3,000 a day.

“It would have been wrong for Dr. Miguel to ignore the blood,” Wilson said. “You don’t know what you have until you open him up.”

In direct testimony earlier in the day, Wilson said that the surgery was premature and that a blood transfusion had been excessive.

“Because of the surgery, Mr. Shoemaker was exposed to more trauma,” Wilson said. “The surgery was unreasonable, erroneous and wasn’t based on the facts of the case, especially the fact that Mr. Shoemaker had a neck fracture. In all medical probability, he was over-transfused and ended up with too much blood.”

As Van Sicklen finished, he asked:

“But for the heroic effort of these doctors, would Mr. Shoemaker have died?”

“I don’t know what heroic means, I guess,” Wilson said.