Jury Award Halved by Indiana Malpractice Damage Limits

October 14, 2004
Although an Indiana jury earlier this month awarded $1.5 million to the family of a 39-year-old woman who died after heart surgery, the family will only receive $750,000 due to a recent state law that limits malpractice damage awards.

The Tippecanoe Circuit Court jury found that Dr. Gerritt Smith, a surgeon at Unity Surgical Center, was negligent in his care of Robin Christopher, 39, who died at Home Hospital in 1999.

Under the Indiana law that was in effect at the time of Robin Christopher's death, the maximum damages the family can recover for their medical malpractice claim is $750,000, of which $650,000 is paid by the state's patient compensation fund. The fund was established by the Legislature as a means of controlling malpractice liability insurance.

If the surgeries had occurred after June 30, 1999, the Christophers could have recovered up to $1.25 million. Rules of law prohibited jurors from being informed about the compensation limit.

Smith operated on Christopher on April 9 and April 14 at Home Hospital after X-rays from a prior surgery showed an unidentified mass in the center of her chest. Attorneys for the family alleged that Smith damaged a major blood vessel in Christopher's chest while performing a diagnostic procedure. They also alleged that Smith failed to adequately prepare for complications in the follow-up surgery that led to Christopher's death.

The $1.5 million verdict was one of the largest ever awarded by a Tippecanoe County jury.

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