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Hospital Sued Over Operating Room Accident

| 3:45 AM |
Shawnee Mission Medical Center, already facing a major lawsuit over an X-ray table accident, is now facing another lawsuit involving an operating-room table accident.
Bonner Springs resident Ivan Zeleznak on Tuesday sued the hospital for an incident he said occurred just three months before the one involving local business mogul Ronald D. Deffenbaugh Sr.

According to the suit, filed in Johnson County District Court, Zeleznak on March 12, 2007, was scheduled to undergo a radical prostatectomy, a prostate cancer operation to remove his prostate gland and the tissue around it. The surgery was to be done using what is known as the da Vinci procedure, a minimally invasive, robotic-assisted operation.


While on the operating table, Zeleznak alleges, the table malfunctioned, causing him to drop, disconnecting him from the da Vinci equipment “and inflicting severe and permanent injuries.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for negligence against the hospital and for negligent design and strict liability against the table’s manufacturer, Steris Corp.

Although the lawsuit doesn’t specify the nature of Zeleznak’s injuries, his attorney, Ronald Stites, said he suffered permanent incontinence and impotence.

“The table dropped about five or six inches and his bladder was slashed,” Stites said.

Stites said Zeleznak was 63 when he underwent the surgery and was under general anesthesia.

An attorney for the hospital, Bruce Keplinger, said the hospital had looked at the doctor’s operating report and was familiar with Zeleznak’s situation.

“We have not yet seen the lawsuit, so we cannot comment on any specific allegations,” he said. “We will continue to investigate the matter and try to find out what happened with this Steris table during the operation.

“But based on our investigation to date, we’ve seen no indication that any employee of Shawnee Mission Medical Center acted in any way improperly at any time during the surgery.”

Officials with Steris could not be reached for comment.

The Deffenbaugh case also concerned a freakish accident. Deffenbaugh’s lawsuit, which was filed 11 months ago, alleges that while in the hospital in late June 2007 for a medical procedure, Deffenbaugh fell off an X-ray table after he was left sedated, improperly restrained and unattended.

The suit says the fall broke his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic.

In its response, Shawnee Mission Medical Center claims that Deffenbaugh was on painkillers not provided by the hospital when he fell off the table. It contends that that he was not sedated or anesthetized at the time and that at least one radiology assistant was with him.

Deffenbaugh founded Deffenbaugh Industries, the region’s largest garbage hauling business. The accident occurred just weeks after he sold the business to a New York private equity firm in a deal estimated to have been worth more than $300 million.

Keplinger said that the Deffenbaugh and Zeleznak cases were different insofar as Deffenbaugh’s accident “was totally unforeseeable and in the exercise of ordinary care not preventable.”

“The table didn’t move at all and nobody claims that it did,” he said. “By contrast, in Mr. Zeleznak’s procedure, the table was designed to move and did move, and the issue is, did it move as designed or not? We’re still investigating that.”

Unlike Zeleznak, Deffenbaugh has not sued the manufacturer of the table.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center, however, has filed a third-party petition against the manufacturer, Siemens AG of Germany, and its American subsidiary, Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc. The petition states that if the hospital is found liable for Deffenbaugh’s injuries, it is entitled to indemnification from Siemens.
COURTESY THE KANSAS CITY STAR
http://www.nbcactionnews.com

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