Science- George Piano required an appendectomy after experiencing "severe abdominal pain," a lawsuit said.
- After his surgery, Piano said that he was experiencing abdominal pain "worse than before."
A man is suing the State of Washington and two doctors after going to the hospital for an appendectomy last year and coming out with more medical issues that required four additional surgeries, according to a civil lawsuit filed on November 2.
George Piano and his wife Elizabeth are accusing the University of Washington Medical Center Northwest (UWMCN) of negligence and seeking an unspecified amount in damages after what they claim in the suit was a botched operation.
According to the lawsuit, Piano went to the UWMCN's emergency room after experiencing "severe abdominal pain."
Doctors determined that Piano had "acute appendicitis" and that his appendix needed to be removed.
After the operation, however, Piano felt abdominal pain "worse than before his surgery, the lawsuit alleged." Doctors performed a "repeat abdominal CT scan," revealing the "continued presence" of an "inflamed" appendix inside Piano, according to an expert opinion Piano sought for the lawsuit.
Instead, UWMCN doctors removed a piece of Piano's lower colon and additional operations were required to repair a "leaky colon" and to address an abdominal infection caused by the initial surgery, the lawsuit alleged.
"George has a deformed abdomen," Edward Moore, an attorney for Piano, told Insider. "He doesn't have a belly button anymore because of the surgery."
Piano had to undergo four additional surgeries and multiple hospitalizations, including the installation of an ileostomy bag where his "intestine protruded from the abdomen so that all waste would be expelled into the bag," the lawsuit alleged.
"The ileostomy bag required emptying multiple times during the day and night," the lawsuit claimed, adding that Piano had to delay seeking cancer treatment because of the botched operation.
Piano also sought an additional opinion from Hobart W. Harris, a professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
In his letter, Harris wrote that the UW surgeon breached the "standard of care" in several ways, including by "misidentifying the sigmoid colon for the cecum."
The sigmoid colon and the cecum are on opposite ends of each other, Moore told Insider.
The professor also noted that Piano will likely need future procedures to reverse the ileostomy and reconstruct his abdominal wall.
A spokesperson for UW Medicine wrote in an email to Insider that the medical center "strives to provide the best possible care to all of our patients" and "their safety and well-being is deeply important to us."
The spokesperson declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit.