01-24-2007, 02:42 PM
Malpractice lawsuit puts high-risk surgery in spotlight
By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff | January 24, 2007
Only those closest to Charlie Weis were supposed to know. The Notre Dame football coach, then offensive coordinator for the Patriots, checked into Massachusetts General Hospital in 2002 under an assumed name.
Breaking News Alerts Embarrassed by his chronic obesity, Weis planned to undergo gastric bypass surgery and quietly return home the next day, avoiding public attention.
Instead, complications developed. Weis nearly died. And now, almost five years later, he faces the prospect of every detail of his long battle with obesity and his bypass ordeal becoming public record as he goes to trial next month in Suffolk Superior Court in his medical malpractice suit against two Mass. General physicians.
With Patriots quarterback Tom Brady expected to appear as a star witness, the case could draw national attention as Weis tries to prove that the doctors -- Charles M. Ferguson and Richard A. Hodin -- acted negligently in leaving him so close to death that he received the Catholic sacrament of last rites.
Weis has altered Notre Dame's spring football schedule to accommodate the trial, which is slated to begin Feb. 12.
"It was probably the biggest mistake of my life," he wrote of undergoing the procedure in his recent book, "No Excuses: One Man's Incredible Rise Through the NFL to Head Coach of Notre Dame."
Weis, 50, who declined a request for an interview, described himself in the book as "a dumb ass" for submitting to the weight loss surgery.
A court-authorized medical malpractice tribunal found in 2004 that Weis had presented enough evidence for the case to proceed toward trial. The Mass. General surgeons are expected to argue that the care and treatment they rendered Weis met or exceeded the accepted standards at the time for a qualified average physician -- a key standard of proof in a medical malpractice case.
"It's our position that everything the doctors did fell squarely within the standard of care," said William J. Dailey Jr., who represents the surgeons.
Weis sought the procedure after watching a DVD of Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, in which he helped guide the Patriots past the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, for their first championship. He weighed nearly 350 pounds.
"I said, 'Look at that fat ass,' " Weis wrote in his book. "I wish I had been looking at someone else. Unfortunately, that fat ass was me."
He had tried a multitude of diets, ultimately to no avail. In addition to "morbid obesity," he suffered from sleep apnea, minor swelling in his lower extremities, and hemochromatosis, a disorder that results in too much iron in the body, according to medical records filed with the court. His father had died of cardiac arrest in 1983 at age 56, and Weis feared he, too, "was headed toward a heart attack," he wrote in his book.
"I had always been a pudge-ball," he wrote, "but seeing how I looked on the sidelines of that game motivated me to take drastic measures."
Indeed, gastric bypass surgery should be regarded as a major procedure performed on a high-risk population, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine informed consumers in 2003. The advisory followed the deaths of six patients within 30 days of gastric bypass surgery at Massachusetts hospitals.
The board then conducted a review of 16 deaths related to gastric bypasses between March 1, 2003, and Oct. 31, 2004, and recommended that Massachusetts hospitals develop clinical guidelines to help recognize and treat complications associated with weight loss surgery.
Tense days
For Weis, trouble developed soon after the procedure. He began bleeding internally and received five units of blood before he was placed on a ventilator the next day and moved to an intensive care unit. He underwent more surgery two days after the bypass. He remained in a coma for nearly two weeks, with his wife, Maura, by his side.
Weis wrote, "One of the doctors told Maura that it didn't look like I was going to make it."
"He's a good man," Maura told the doctor.
"There's a saying that it usually happens to the good ones," Weis quoted the unidentified doctor as saying.
Ferguson, who has been licensed in Massachusetts since 1990, performed the surgery, while Hodin, who has been licensed in the state since 1989, was covering for Ferguson when the complications developed. Weis agreed last August to dismiss from the case three other Mass. General doctors he initially sued: Peter J. Lee, Sharon L. Stein, and Sutano Misra.
Ferguson and Hodin each has made one medical malpractice payment in the last 10 years, with Ferguson paying a patient $450,000 in 2005 and Hodin making a $400,000 payment in 1997, though neither case involved weight loss surgery.
The doctors were among 131 of the state's 1,186 general surgeons who made medical malpractice payments in the last 10 years, according to the state board. The board advises consumers on its website that "just because a physician made a malpractice payment, don't assume the physician is not a good doctor. Sometimes, the insurer decides to settle a claim without ever discussing it with the doctor."
In the Weis case, Ferguson and Hodin may need to counter a report by Dr. Steven J. Smith, a Florida surgeon hired by Weis's legal team, who concluded the Mass. General physicians provided substandard care and treatment resulting in Weis's excessive bleeding, septic shock, and respiratory distress, among other conditions.
The court is also expected to hear from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose testimony is likely to focus on Weis's condition before and after the surgery as well as the episode's emotional impact (Maura Weis also is named as a plaintiff). Brady, who recently sat for a deposition at Gillette Stadium, held a bedside vigil with the Weises when complications developed.
"Tommy Brady was the one person who was there with my wife through that whole ordeal," Weis wrote. "If it hadn't been for him, Maura would have gone off the deep end."
Weis stated he was "forever indebted" to Brady for his support.
"He became like a son to me," Weis wrote. "You'll never, ever hear me say a bad thing about Tommy Brady as a person for as long as I live."
Brady's backup quarterbacks at the time, Damon Huard and Rohan Davey, also visited Weis.
"Damon was at the hospital when things went bad," Weis wrote. "Maura said he almost vomited right in my room. That was how awful everything looked at that point."
Struggle continues
After three weeks at Mass. General, Weis was transferred to Rhode Island Hospital, where he stayed 12 days before he returned home, coping with problems in his lower legs and feet.
"To the present time, Mr. Weis continues to suffer significant pain, discomfort and debilitation in his lower extremities, including neurological impairment in his right foot," his lawsuit states. "This condition requires that Mr. Weis wear a brace on his right leg to support himself."
Weis has continued to struggle with his weight since he left New England for Notre Dame in 2004, though he acknowledged in his book that the surgery worked "to the extent that I lost weight."
He dropped more than 100 pounds after the surgery, but later regained an estimated 50 pounds. "But I paid far too heavy a price," he wrote of the bypass operation. "Any possible benefit I may have gotten from the surgery is not worth being at death's door or having only 50 percent movement in my right foot and 80 percent movement in my left foot."
Barring a settlement or dismissal, a jury will decide whether Weis was a victim of malpractice.
Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.
By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff | January 24, 2007
Only those closest to Charlie Weis were supposed to know. The Notre Dame football coach, then offensive coordinator for the Patriots, checked into Massachusetts General Hospital in 2002 under an assumed name.
Breaking News Alerts Embarrassed by his chronic obesity, Weis planned to undergo gastric bypass surgery and quietly return home the next day, avoiding public attention.
Instead, complications developed. Weis nearly died. And now, almost five years later, he faces the prospect of every detail of his long battle with obesity and his bypass ordeal becoming public record as he goes to trial next month in Suffolk Superior Court in his medical malpractice suit against two Mass. General physicians.
With Patriots quarterback Tom Brady expected to appear as a star witness, the case could draw national attention as Weis tries to prove that the doctors -- Charles M. Ferguson and Richard A. Hodin -- acted negligently in leaving him so close to death that he received the Catholic sacrament of last rites.
Weis has altered Notre Dame's spring football schedule to accommodate the trial, which is slated to begin Feb. 12.
"It was probably the biggest mistake of my life," he wrote of undergoing the procedure in his recent book, "No Excuses: One Man's Incredible Rise Through the NFL to Head Coach of Notre Dame."
Weis, 50, who declined a request for an interview, described himself in the book as "a dumb ass" for submitting to the weight loss surgery.
A court-authorized medical malpractice tribunal found in 2004 that Weis had presented enough evidence for the case to proceed toward trial. The Mass. General surgeons are expected to argue that the care and treatment they rendered Weis met or exceeded the accepted standards at the time for a qualified average physician -- a key standard of proof in a medical malpractice case.
"It's our position that everything the doctors did fell squarely within the standard of care," said William J. Dailey Jr., who represents the surgeons.
Weis sought the procedure after watching a DVD of Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, in which he helped guide the Patriots past the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, for their first championship. He weighed nearly 350 pounds.
"I said, 'Look at that fat ass,' " Weis wrote in his book. "I wish I had been looking at someone else. Unfortunately, that fat ass was me."
He had tried a multitude of diets, ultimately to no avail. In addition to "morbid obesity," he suffered from sleep apnea, minor swelling in his lower extremities, and hemochromatosis, a disorder that results in too much iron in the body, according to medical records filed with the court. His father had died of cardiac arrest in 1983 at age 56, and Weis feared he, too, "was headed toward a heart attack," he wrote in his book.
"I had always been a pudge-ball," he wrote, "but seeing how I looked on the sidelines of that game motivated me to take drastic measures."
Indeed, gastric bypass surgery should be regarded as a major procedure performed on a high-risk population, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine informed consumers in 2003. The advisory followed the deaths of six patients within 30 days of gastric bypass surgery at Massachusetts hospitals.
The board then conducted a review of 16 deaths related to gastric bypasses between March 1, 2003, and Oct. 31, 2004, and recommended that Massachusetts hospitals develop clinical guidelines to help recognize and treat complications associated with weight loss surgery.
Tense days
For Weis, trouble developed soon after the procedure. He began bleeding internally and received five units of blood before he was placed on a ventilator the next day and moved to an intensive care unit. He underwent more surgery two days after the bypass. He remained in a coma for nearly two weeks, with his wife, Maura, by his side.
Weis wrote, "One of the doctors told Maura that it didn't look like I was going to make it."
"He's a good man," Maura told the doctor.
"There's a saying that it usually happens to the good ones," Weis quoted the unidentified doctor as saying.
Ferguson, who has been licensed in Massachusetts since 1990, performed the surgery, while Hodin, who has been licensed in the state since 1989, was covering for Ferguson when the complications developed. Weis agreed last August to dismiss from the case three other Mass. General doctors he initially sued: Peter J. Lee, Sharon L. Stein, and Sutano Misra.
Ferguson and Hodin each has made one medical malpractice payment in the last 10 years, with Ferguson paying a patient $450,000 in 2005 and Hodin making a $400,000 payment in 1997, though neither case involved weight loss surgery.
The doctors were among 131 of the state's 1,186 general surgeons who made medical malpractice payments in the last 10 years, according to the state board. The board advises consumers on its website that "just because a physician made a malpractice payment, don't assume the physician is not a good doctor. Sometimes, the insurer decides to settle a claim without ever discussing it with the doctor."
In the Weis case, Ferguson and Hodin may need to counter a report by Dr. Steven J. Smith, a Florida surgeon hired by Weis's legal team, who concluded the Mass. General physicians provided substandard care and treatment resulting in Weis's excessive bleeding, septic shock, and respiratory distress, among other conditions.
The court is also expected to hear from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose testimony is likely to focus on Weis's condition before and after the surgery as well as the episode's emotional impact (Maura Weis also is named as a plaintiff). Brady, who recently sat for a deposition at Gillette Stadium, held a bedside vigil with the Weises when complications developed.
"Tommy Brady was the one person who was there with my wife through that whole ordeal," Weis wrote. "If it hadn't been for him, Maura would have gone off the deep end."
Weis stated he was "forever indebted" to Brady for his support.
"He became like a son to me," Weis wrote. "You'll never, ever hear me say a bad thing about Tommy Brady as a person for as long as I live."
Brady's backup quarterbacks at the time, Damon Huard and Rohan Davey, also visited Weis.
"Damon was at the hospital when things went bad," Weis wrote. "Maura said he almost vomited right in my room. That was how awful everything looked at that point."
Struggle continues
After three weeks at Mass. General, Weis was transferred to Rhode Island Hospital, where he stayed 12 days before he returned home, coping with problems in his lower legs and feet.
"To the present time, Mr. Weis continues to suffer significant pain, discomfort and debilitation in his lower extremities, including neurological impairment in his right foot," his lawsuit states. "This condition requires that Mr. Weis wear a brace on his right leg to support himself."
Weis has continued to struggle with his weight since he left New England for Notre Dame in 2004, though he acknowledged in his book that the surgery worked "to the extent that I lost weight."
He dropped more than 100 pounds after the surgery, but later regained an estimated 50 pounds. "But I paid far too heavy a price," he wrote of the bypass operation. "Any possible benefit I may have gotten from the surgery is not worth being at death's door or having only 50 percent movement in my right foot and 80 percent movement in my left foot."
Barring a settlement or dismissal, a jury will decide whether Weis was a victim of malpractice.
Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.