$12M Danbury Hospital verdict upheld

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a $12 million verdict against Danbury Hospital for a Redding great-grandmother whose botched hernia operation nearly ended her life.

The state’s highest court overturned an earlier decision by the state Appellate Court, ruling the jury had sufficient evidence to reach a verdict.

In May 2014, a six-member Superior Court jury deliberated about four hours before finding the hospital negligent for the injuries to 65-year-old Vivian Gagliano.

“She went into the hospital for basically an in-and-out hernia operation and ended up in a coma,” said Gagliano’s lawyer at the time, Joshua Koskoff, of Bridgeport.

Danbury Hospital officials could not be reached Thursday for comment.

The lawsuit stated that on July 23, 2008, Gagliano went into the hospital for one-day laparoscopic hernia repair.

While Gagliano was sedated, Koskoff said, a member of the hospital’s residency teaching team, who had not previously been involved in the case, was

brought in to assist the attending physician in the operation.

Koskoff said the attending physician allowed the resident to wield the special

surgical device during the operation and perforated the woman’s colon.

“The perforation was not detected by the attending physician and she (Gagliano) was closed up,” Koskoff said.

“Two days later, her heart stops and she goes

into a coma.”

He said Gagliano was rushed into the operating room for life-saving surgery, at which time the perforation in her colon was found.

She has had seven subsequent surgeries to repair the damage and spent 70

days in the hospital, much of the time in a coma, Koskoff said.

In its appeal, the hospital claimed sufficient evidence had not been presented at trial to prove the resident was acting as an agent of the hospital when he performed the surgery.