His gastric bypass surgery had dire complications, and it goes to show that the gray areas of complicated cases lend themselves to questioning:
At the trial of Weis’s malpractice lawsuit yesterday, attorney Michael E. Mone asserted in his opening statement that two surgeons involved in the weight-reduction surgery disregarded warning signs that Weis was bleeding internally following the June 14, 2002, operation. Not until June 16, when a nurse suggested a test that reveals stomach leaks, did doctors Charles M. Ferguson and Richard A. Hodin realize that Weis was bleeding internally and spilling stomach contents into his abdomen, causing massive infection, Mone said . . .. . . But the surgeons’ lawyer, William J. Dailey Jr., said in his opening statement that Weis’s internal bleeding, while unfortunate, is not unusual for this type of surgery, in which 5 percent to 10 percent of patients have serious complications and 1 out of 100 dies. Ferguson had directly briefed Weis about the dangers, including internal bleeding, and Weis understood, the lawyer said.
Dailey said Ferguson, Hodin, and numerous other Mass. General doctors were aware that Weis was bleeding internally to some degree, but they believed that the bleeding would stop without surgery. He said they were worried that Weis might have developed a blood clot in his lung, called a pulmonary embolism, which would have made a second surgery extremely dangerous.
