Power Rogers attorney Larry R. Rogers, Jr. secured a $6 million settlement for the family of Billy Horne who died two days after a failed brain surgery.
Horne’s wife, Jeanette Horne sued the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery as well as the hospital, Rush University Medical Center, alleging that the doctor failed to recognize and correct a fatal bleeding issue he caused during the operation to repair Billy’s aneurism.
According to Jeanette Horne, her husband’s doctor informed that her that Billy’s condition could be treated with an endovascular procedure that involved placing a stent at the aneurism’s neck and feeding coils up through its spaces to stop blood from flowing into the affected area. According to Rogers, Jr., a number of the doctor’s colleagues recommended that he should repair the damage though an open craniotomy because of its size and shape.
“It was described as a bilobed aneurysm that had Mickey Mouse ears,” he said. “Most of them are like a balloon and so they have a very round shape. When you have an oddly shaped one, then they’re less susceptible to filling with coils.”
The procedure took more than four hours – on average, this type of endovascular procedure only takes one to two hours. According to Rogers, Jr. the majority of that time was spent attempting to get the coils to stay in place. Billy was unable to be completely woken up following the procedure, and died two days later. A post-operative CT showed that his brain hemorrhaged during the procedure. His cause of death was the result of pressure caused by intracranial bleeding.
“So what he said he could do in reality he could not do, and he attempted to place coils in the aneurysm over a dozen times,” Rogers, Jr. said. “The perforation [the doctor] caused was beyond the aneurysm. It was where the guide wire likely extended when he was trying to place the stents, and he did not identify the perforation during the procedure.”
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