MIAMI, FL— Memorial Hospital Jacksonville has been ordered to pay the victim of an alleged botched surgical procedure $178 million in damages, The Tennessean recently reported. A Duval County jury handed down the verdict upon finding the HCA-owned medical center liable in the case of Clay Chandler—a Florida man who claims he suffered debilitating injuries due to negligence on the part of the hospital and Dr. John DePeri.

More than two years after Chandler filed the medical malpractice lawsuit—which claimed Dr. DePeri failed to promptly diagnose and treat the gastric bypass surgery-related complications his patient endured (both during and after the procedure)—he was awarded $168 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages against the hospital.

The medical malpractice lawsuit also appeared to claim that over a span of weeks spent in Memorial Hospital’s Critical Care Unit, Chandler was subject to substandard post-op treatment.

As a result of the doctor’s alleged failure to quickly recognize and treat his patient’s surgical complications (as well as provide insufficient follow-up care), Chandler apparently suffered serious speech and vision impairments. The said surgical errors also allegedly left the victim wheel chair-bound.

Furthermore, jury members found Jacksonville-based Memorial Hospital fraudulent in the case, based on evidence that it apparently misrepresented Dr. DePeri’s actual qualifications for performing gastric bypass surgery.

According to Memorial Hospital, which is expected to file a motion to appeal the recent medical malpractice ruling, “We provide excellent care and are committed to the quality care we provide our patients.”


About the Miami injury lawyers and medical negligence attorneys of Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso, Spier & Connolly, P.A.
For more than three decades, the knowledgeable Miami injury law firm of Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso, Spier & Connolly, P.A. has represented patients who suffer serious harm due to negligence on the part of a doctor or hospital. With extensive experience litigating the complex personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice claims of such negligence victims, as well as and the families of those who die as a result of substandard care, the South Florida injury attorneys of Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso, Spier & Connolly, P.A. strive to provide justice to their clients so that they may obtain the compensation they truly deserve.