A Southern California man went to the hospital for routine knee surgery but ended up with an amputated leg, a lawsuit alleges.
Wayne Wolff, the patient, and his wife, Lisa Wolff, are now suing the University of California Board of Regents for abuse and neglect, negligence, loss of consortium, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Wayne, 58, was diagnosed with a left medial meniscus tear and mild knee arthritis in November 2023 by Dr. Dean Wang, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at the University of California Irvine Medical Center, according to the lawsuit, obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The Independent has reached out to the hospital for comment.
On April 3, 2024, he underwent a two-and-a-half hour surgery that resulted in a cut blood vessel. It took 35 minutes to stop the bleeding, during which time he lost about one liter of blood, or one-fifth the amount of blood that the average human body holds.
Wang allegedly told Lisa that he “nicked a vein” during surgery and that her husband lost 200 to 250 milliliters of blood, the suit says.
The California couple claims that the surgeon actually hit the popliteal artery, which supplies blood to the lower leg.
The Wolffs claim Wang “intentionally misinformed” Lisa “of the character and severity of the injury caused during the surgery,” the lawsuit says, according to the Orange County Register. The filing adds that Wang should have known that amount of blood would have come from cutting an artery, not a vein.
Wayne suffered excruciating pain over the next three days, pain that was barely alleviated by any one of a variety of drugs: fentanyl, oxycodone, dilaudid and ketamine.
Lisa, a former emergency room nurse, implored doctors and medical staff to give her husband scans to determine the cause of the pain, which she believed to be inconsistent with pain resulting from a knee operation.
After a doctor and nurse worried they couldn’t find a pulse in his foot, Wang checked the next day and also couldn’t find a pulse, the filing states. The patient said he had lost feeling in the bottom of his foot and was unable to move it.
The surgeon then informed the couple that he had to leave for a two-day conference. While he was away, Lisa continued to ask for scans. One doctor on April 5 ordered an ultrasound — which was canceled by Wang 30 minutes later, the suit says. That evening, a nurse threatened to call security on Lisa if she didn’t leave her husband’s room.
Wang returned the following day and operated on Wayne. He “inaccurately and recklessly” told Lisa that Wayne had suffered a blood clot in his artery, the suit alleges. An amputation might be necessary, the surgeon allegedly said.
During yet another surgery, the vascular surgeon operating on Wayne told Lisa that the issue wasn’t a blood clot but that the popliteal artery had been severed and his lower leg had received no blood flow as a result, the filing claims.
Wang “never attended to plaintiff Wayne Wolff’s most glaring custodial care need — seeking out the source of his unbearable pain,” the suit says. “There is little doubt the use of simple imaging, such as an ultrasound, would have saved his leg. His most basic need was ignored, and recklessly neglected.”
The lower half of the 58-year-old’s leg was removed on April 14.
When asked why he canceled the ultrasound and refused to order tests to determine the cause of Wayne’s pain, Wang allegedly replied: “I don’t know.”
“We look forward to adjudicating this matter in a public forum,” Jeoffrey Robinson, an attorney for the Wolffs, told the Los Angeles Times. “This scenario should never happen to anyone ever again.”
