Despite their best efforts: Round 2 of Charlie Weis’ malpractice lawsuit

The jury selection process began last Friday for the retrial of the medical malpractice suit brought by Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis against two surgeons at a Harvard teaching hospital. Weis claims the two allowed him to bleed internally for 30 hours after the 2002 gastric bypass surgery, before performing a second operation to correct the complication. Weis nearly died while in a two-week coma and has a lingering limp with his right foot from the surgery.

The first hearing in February ended in a mistrial when a male juror collapsed during a medical expert’s testimony and the defendant doctors rushed to his aid, potentially influencing the other jurors and the outcome.

There are clear risks which patients should understand, according to bariatric surgeon Dr. John Romanelli. Bleeding, infection, leak from the stomach-intestine or intestine-intestine connection, ulcers in the stomach pouch, narrowing of the stomach-intestine connection, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, stroke, and longer-term vitamin and mineral deficiencies are all risks of the surgery. All of this needs to be explained to the patient in detail over a period of time where they can digest the information and ask questions about it, he said.

It is particularly important to consider the complications because they happen so frequently – in 30% of patients, according to Dr. Romanelli. The survival rate for gastric bypass surgery is 98%; as much as 2% of patients die, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October 2005.

Regular follow-up with the surgeon is important because some problems can occur years later. For example, “vitamins such as B12, folic acid, thiamine, and minerals such as calcium and iron can become deficient in gastric bypass patients, and levels must be checked regularly. Ulcers, which are most commonly found in patients who smoke, can happen years later. Hernias can occur – either in the abdominal wall or in between the intestinal loops," says Dr. Romanelli.

In general, patients whose weight is 100 pounds over their ideal body weight might qualify for this kind of surgery, he added.

"Without knowing the case [of Charlie Weis] directly, one concern I have is that he opted to bypass many of the routine preoperative evaluations because he had a tight time window of availability away from the Patriots, and I know this from the media reports from the trial. I wonder if this exacerbated the problems that developed.

Complications like this can and do happen, despite the best efforts of well-trained doctors."


Advice to those thinking of gastric bypass surgery: Fully consider the risks, benefits and alternatives.

Read Part 1 of the story, or read John Haynsworth’s source story.

A long and rocky course of recovery: Gastric bypass surgical error lawsuit

Mary Larson was very overweight, and had gastric bypass surgery to reduce her appetite. The surgery itself went well.

But after the operation, the connection linkng the small intestine to the pouch created to limit food intake (the anastomosis) began to leak.

Eight days after the surgery, she was in critical condition. The same surgeon performed emergency surgery, and irrigated and cleaned the area, but did not repair the leak. The surgeon then transferred her to a long-term care facility without a plan to follow her or have another surgeon follow up on her progress. Later transferred to another hospital, she underwent several more operations and endured a long and rocky course of recovery.

She filed a lawsuit, saying the surgeon failed to diagnose and treat the leak and the resulting peritonitis, despite her "constellation of symptoms." They asked the judge to add the medical center as a defendant, saying it had granted privileges to the surgeon though he lacked appropriate training and board certification, and had a history of malpractice claims and restrictions on his practice. The question of whether the medical center was negligent in credentialing the surgeon has reached the Minnesota Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Mary has been recovering.

Advice: Check out the experience and qualifications of your doctor.

Read another of our gastric bypass stories, or read Wayne Guglielmo’s source story in the May 4 issue of Medical Economics.

“The biggest mistake of my life”: A gastric bypass surgery lawsuit

He now suffers great pain while standing on the sidelines, coaching football—but he was at death’s door, and he’s alive—and in court, suing his surgeons. His 350-pound bulk had hurt his chances of becoming a head coach—and risked an early death. So, after talking with doctors at a Harvard teaching hospital, Charlie Weis, the former offensive coach for the New England Patriots football team, agreed to gastric bypass surgery.

The surgical staples that sectioned off a small part of his stomach had not been tight enough to prevent leaks, and internal bleeding was filling his abdomen and compressing his lungs. It took his doctors and nurses almost two days to discover the bleeding. “He spent days at death’s door,” according to his lawyer, and spent three weeks in the hospital. He has suffered permanent nerve damage to his right foot that makes it difficult to walk and stand. Weis calls the surgery “the biggest mistake of my life.”

Advice: Surgery is inherently dangerous; keep that in mind when considering optional surgery. Find out your alternatives by getting a second opinion—from a doctor who is not a surgeon.

Read about another gastric bypass patient, or read Scott Allen’s article in today’s Boston Globe.