Kelly Hughes Iverson and M. Peggy Chu obtained a defense verdict in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County for a gastroenterologist. Together with a general surgeon, the gastroenterologist placed a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy “PEG” tube in a seventy-two-year-old patient who could not swallow. It was later determined that the PEG tube had perforated the sigmoid colon during placement. The Plantiffs claimed that CT imaging may have shown bowel near the stomach, so that the procedure should never have been done. The defense produced testimony from experts in surgery and gastroenterology who explained to the jury during the 8-day trial that radiology imaging was not indicated, could not have reliably determined the location of bowel in the abdomen, and would not have contraindicated the PEG procedure. The jury agreed, and found unanimously for the gastroenterologist and surgeon after an 8-day trial.
