Patient Wins $18.6 Million From UC Irvine

SANTA ANA — In what is believed to be the largest medical malpractice award against UCI Medical Center, a judge has ordered UC regents to pay nearly $19 million to a Garden Grove woman who was left severely brain-damaged after a routine operation on her hand.

Superior Court Judge C. Robert Jameson said the university owed $18.6 million to Denise DeSoto, who became comatose after an operation at UCI’s hospital in Orange about 3 1/2 years ago.

Last April, the judge took the unusual step of barring the university from continuing to defend against the woman’s suit, after finding that the university’s attorneys withheld key evidence and had concealed the existence of a crucial witness.

“Considering what [the university] did to her, this award is fair and just,” said Irvine lawyer Cornelius P. Bahan, who represented DeSoto, 38.

UCI officials said Thursday that they will ask the judge for a retrial and, if that request is denied, they will appeal his decision.

The award deals another financial blow to the regents, who are still dealing with lawsuits filed by women and couples whose eggs or embryos were allegedly misappropriated by three former UC Irvine fertility doctors.

Thus far, the university system has paid out about $14 million to settle about half of the 102 lawsuits filed by patients of the now defunct UCI fertility clinic, according to attorneys for the women.

DeSoto, a legal secretary, was on her way home from work Dec. 6, 1993, when she was involved in an accident that caused her minivan to roll. She was rushed to UCI Medical Center, where surgeons amputated two of her fingers and reattached two others.

A week later, complications developed. She lost circulation in the reattached fingers and underwent surgery a second time to correct the problem.

After 30 minutes in the recovery room, DeSoto turned blue from lack of oxygen, Bahan said. When doctors removed her breathing tube, they found it was clogged with mucus, blocking the passage of air and causing her to suffer cardiac arrest.

DeSoto, a mother of two, has been in a coma ever since. She is hospitalized at Meridian Neuro Care in Santa Ana.

Marshall Silberberg, an Irvine attorney representing the regents, said DeSoto’s injury was “unfortunate and unavoidable.”

But in court documents, Bahan asserted that the university concealed evidence and the existence of some witnesses with firsthand knowledge, including the anesthesiologist who was the first physician to come to DeSoto’s aid.

Bahan said it took more than three years and numerous trips to court for the regents’ attorneys to admit the existence of the anesthesiologist, who had just five months’ experience as a resident.

Bahan accused the regents of plotting a cover-up, pointing to a sworn declaration by Dr. J.A. Makena Marangu, one of the physicians who treated and was subsequently sued by DeSoto.

In her declaration, Marangu said the university’s attorney told her “repeatedly that if I didn’t cooperate and go along with the defense story that DeSoto’s injuries were a freak, unavoidable accident, I would face huge personal liability from an adverse judgment and costs of defense.”

Last April, Jameson found that the regents had grossly obstructed justice in the case, saying the defendants “have stonewalled this thing from the get-go.”

In a decision issued earlier this week, Jameson said he decided to strike the university’s defense because its conduct was “intentional, despicable and unprofessional.”

The judge’s $18.6-million award includes $1.5 million for DeSoto’s past medical bills.

“This clearly isn’t UCI’s year,” said Melanie Blum, an Orange attorney who represented 28 couples who sued alleging abuses at the fertility clinic.

John Lundberg, UC’s deputy general counsel in Oakland, acknowledged Thursday that there had been unfortunate delays in handing over evidence, but he said they were not meant to mislead the court.

“It has that appearance, but there was no intentional effort to hide anything,” Lundberg said. “That’s the last thing we would engage in. We want to treat people who bring lawsuits openly and fairly while at the same time defending the university.”

Lundberg said the university will push for the case to be tried before a jury.