There’s No Defense for This

The University of California regents should find out and make public just what went wrong in the lawsuit that resulted in an $18.6-million malpractice award against UCI Medical Center.

Superior Court Judge C. Robert Jameson was so upset with the conduct of the attorneys representing the hospital that he took the rare step of barring the university from putting on a defense. That meant the only question left for Jameson to decide was how much the university should pay to compensate Denise DeSoto, 38, who has been in a coma since undergoing hand surgery at the Orange medical center nearly four years ago.

The regents discussed Jameson’s action at their monthly meeting last week. Jameson had told attorneys for the hospital that they “stonewalled from the get-go” in the case. He charged that the university attempted to prevent the court, through “intentional, despicable and unprofessional” conduct, from learning how DeSoto became brain-damaged.

DeSoto’s lawyer contended that the university tried to hide the fact that an inexperienced anesthesiologist was the first doctor to treat DeSoto after she experienced breathing difficulties. The problem occurred after an operation to restore circulation in a hand that had been injured in an auto accident days earlier. The university’s attorneys, both in-house and hired from an outside firm for this case, have denied trying to obstruct justice.

Lawsuits produce scores of claims and counterclaims, charges and denials. But this involves a public hospital, not to mention a judge who clearly did not believe the school’s lawyers. It also comes as the university is paying millions in damages to women whose eggs were misappropriated from a UC Irvine fertility clinic, another woeful embarrassment for the school.

After receiving a report from university officials, the regents will have to decide who should be held responsible and what will be done to prevent a recurrence. The university must insist on better compliance with basic disclosure requirements in future cases, and it should ensure that it will not again be ordered to pay millions of taxpayer dollars without even mounting a defense.