Report on Botched Surgery Is Privileged
CHICAGO (CN) – A federal judge refused to order the release of a peer-reviewed report on a surgery in which doctors cut a woman’s bowel, spilling its contents into her abdomen and causing an infection that killed her five days later.
Maria Quintana underwent an October 2008 elective total hysterectomy at the Mount Sinai Hospital Center of Chicago.
“During the surgery, her bowel was lacerated and its contents began leaking into her abdomen,” the court explained. “Five days later, she died from an overwhelming infection.” She is survived by her husband and four children.
Ms. Quintana’s estate sued the United States under the Federal Torts Claims Act (FTCA), since one of her surgeons, Dr. Maryam Siddiqui, was employed by the government. It also sued Mount Sinai Hospital, various physicians and a physicians’ foundation, Access Community Health Network, for failing to timely diagnose and treat Quintana’s postoperative infection.