Jury awards injured man $5-million

Two surgeries on the 71-year-old's spine in 2000 damaged his legs and his ability to walk.
 
By Marcus Franklin
Times Staff Writer

The numbness in Robert "Jack" Vann's left leg wasn't painful. But it nagged at him, and he wanted it to go away.

So, in 2000, after seeing an ad in Reader's Digest for the Florida Spine Institute, the Birmingham, Ala., man made an appointment with the center, in Clearwater.

A doctor told Vann, then 68, the numbness stemmed from a cyst on the right side of his spine and he needed surgery to remove it.

But, after two surgeries in the same day, Vann emerged in worse condition than he started, his attorney said.

"When Mr. Vann awoke from anesthesia, he couldn't feel either of his legs," said Wil Florin, the Vanns' Palm Harbor attorney. "During surgery, one of the instruments the doctor was using pierced the protective lining of the spinal cord and injured nerves."

A Pinellas-Pasco jury on Friday awarded the Vanns $5-million in the medical malpractice lawsuit the couple filed in 2001 against the institute and the doctor who performed the operations.

"This was an unnecessary surgery," said Florin, who worked on the case with his partner Tom Roebig. "His condition should have been treated with medication."

Messages left at the institute and for Dr. Scott Webb and Tampa defense attorney Jeffrey S. Hunter were not returned. In court records, however, the institute and doctor denied Webb was careless and negligent in treating Vann. They also denied responsibility for Vann's post-surgery condition.

Before the surgeries, Vann could walk, although standing too long aggravated the numbness, Florin said. Now, both of Vann's legs are numb from the knees down and he suffers from foot drop in both feet.

Around the house, he can "shuffle short distances" with a walker and leg braces. The 71-year-old, who retired from a job in quality control, now uses a scooter or wheelchair for longer distances, Florin said.

The Vanns did not return a message left at their Birmingham home.

During the week long trial before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Bruce Boyer, Florin's expert, a Detroit neurosurgeon, described the surgeries as "unnecessary" and "radical," Florin said.

Before the operations, a doctor at Florida Spine diagnosed Vann with peripheral neuropathy - damage to the peripheral nerves, the vast communications network that sends information from the brain and spinal cord to every other part of the body, Florin said. The condition can be treated with medication. Florin said Dr. Webb sought a second opinion before deciding on surgery.

The expert also testified a neurosurgeon should have been present during the second operation. Florida Spine has no neurosurgeon on staff, according to Florin. Webb operated on Vann a second time the same day in May 2000 after the man complained to his wife, Betty, of a lack of feeling in his legs.

The jury of three men and three women deliberated about 2 1/2 hours.

"I had no doubt in my mind that something was not right," juror Benjy Colombo, a 44-year-old senior computer operator from Largo, said Tuesday. "The preponderance of evidence was that it was not right from the beginning."

The award compensated for past and future suffering, as well as reimbursement for medical bills. It also covered past and future estimated living costs for Vann's expected life span, about 12 years.

Vann and his wife were planning to move to a home they'd bought in Safety Harbor, where their daughter lived, but changed their minds after Vann's medical problems.