On January 19th, 2014, Don McLaren expressed his feelings of gratitude over the end of a long civil trial focused on the death of his wife. McLaren gave his statement the day after a jury ruled in his favor and awarded him $776,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit involving the treatment of his late wife, Karla. He told the press:
“Relief — just relief…it’s off my shoulders now.”
The 72-year-old South Dakota man from the city of Interior told the media in a phone interview after spending a week in Rapid City that he was relieved at the verdict against Rapid City surgeon Wesley Sufficool. However, McLaren sat alone through the trial and returned home to an empty house. His wife of 15 years, Karla, died last August at the age of 55.
Suit Filed Over Alleged Misplaced Surgical Staples
Karla McLaren first initiated a personal injury lawsuit against Sufficool after she was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease back in 2011. Her husband said:
“She said ‘don’t let it slip, and I told her I would finish it. She was a great lady.”
Karla McLaren spent the remaining months of her life in a managed care facility after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, but her health began to deteriorate several months after Sufficool performed surgery to remove her gallbladder in December of 2010.
Karla McLaren became severely jaundiced from lack of liver function and suffered a great deal of physical pain when she was hospitalized in May 2011. Upon further examination, doctors soon discovered surgical staples preventing the flow of bile from her liver into her digestive system, according to McLaren’s attorney James Leach of Rapid City. The staples were supposed to be placed on the cystic duct, but instead, the staples were discovered on her right hepatic duct and the left hepatic duct, Leach said.
Surgical Error Allegedly Caused Severe Pain, End Stage Liver Disease
Sufficool claimed he did not place the surgical staples where they were found, Leach said. Sufficool’s attorney could not be reached for comment last week. An Omaha surgeon removed McLaren’s staples in 2011, but the damage could not be reversed, Leach noted. Karla McLaren was told she had end-stage liver disease and was placed on a liver transplant list. Leach added:
“She suffered a great deal. She was living with a death sentence.”
Nearly eighteen months later, in December 2012, Karla McLaren was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. She had moved to the Philip Nursing Home that November due to declining health. Don McLaren recalled:
“I drove over every day to see her smiling face. She’d smile as soon as she saw me.”
Before she fell ill, Karla McLaren was a “happy-go-lucky, bouncy gal,” according to her husband.
Faithful to his wedding vows, McLaren said feeding the woman whose smile brightened his day was a joy. Winning the lawsuit for Karla doesn’t end his heartache, but he feels a certain satisfaction in prevailing, McLaren said. He does, however, expect Sufficool to appeal the jury’s decision.
An autopsy performed after Karla McLaren’s death was unable to differentiate the cause of death between Lou Gehrig’s disease and the liver diseases, according to Leach. The attorney asked the jury to decide only if Sufficool had committed medical malpractice that caused Karla McLaren a great deal of suffering and caused her end-stage liver disease, not necessarily her death.
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