$24-Million Award to Patient Is Upheld
The state Supreme Court has upheld a 1995 award of $24 million to a Laguna Niguel woman who was left blind, paralyzed and unable to speak after routine diagnostic surgery.
Jennifer Hamel, 34, will receive the payments over her lifetime. “The vast majority of it will be set aside for future medical care,” said Cornelius P. Bahan, her attorney.
Hamel has been bedridden and in need of around-the-clock care since 1993, when she went to the OutPatient Surgery Center in Huntington Beach to undergo routine gynecological tests. During the surgery, Bahan said, Hamel--then 29--suffered brain damage when oxygen to her brain was cut off for 15 to 30 minutes.
The malpractice lawsuit filed on behalf of Hamel named as defendants the surgery center and Dr. William Keel, who performed the procedure.
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