photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Nov. 27, 2023.

A local court case involving a surgeon’s removal of the wrong organ in a woman’s body is back in Douglas County after a series of appeals in the woman’s favor.

The case concerns Jeannine Williams-Davidson, who went to Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka to have an adrenal gland removed, but Dr. Nason Lui removed part of her pancreas instead. Williams-Davidson said that another procedure and extended hospital stay were then required, and the hospital allegedly charged her for both surgeries, the hospital stays and follow-up care.

Two years after the incident, Williams-Davidson and her husband sued Lui and the hospital for malpractice. They did not offer expert testimony on the medical malpractice claim, which is generally required in Kansas — because of the complexity of medical issues — unless a “common knowledge exception” applies.

The couple believed that a common-knowledge exception applied in the case of the removal of the wrong organ.

As noted in the court file, the exception applies when the “diagnosis, treatment, and care of a patient is so obviously lacking in reasonable care and the results are so bad that the lack of reasonable care would be apparent to and within the common knowledge and experience” of an average person.

A Douglas County District Court judge, James McCabria, disagreed, however, and issued an order of summary judgment for the surgeon and hospital, which the plaintiff appealed.

On appeal, a panel of judges held that the District Court was wrong and that the common-knowledge exception did apply and that Williams-Davidson did not need expert testimony.

“When a surgeon misidentifies and removes a healthy organ, leaving the organ intended to be operated on untouched, the outcome is so patently bad that the lack of reasonable care can be apparent and within the common knowledge of a layperson to establish a breach of the standard of care,” a majority of the court wrote in its July 2023 decision, reversing the lower court.

When the defendants took the matter to the Supreme Court of Kansas, arguing that the appeals court was mistaken, the justices on the high court split down the middle Friday, 3-3, with the seventh justice having recused himself. When the court “ties” in such a manner, the result is that the appeals court decision is upheld.

The case has now been sent back to Douglas County District Court, where it will be reconsidered.