$9.5 Million Army Hospital Medical Malpractice Settlement

Honolulu, HIIt was error after error that killed Julie Bond. She was the 31-year-old wife of former Army Staff Sgt. Donald Bond and a healthy mother of three. She just wanted to lose those extra pregnancy pounds. But six weeks after laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery, she was dead. Tripler Army Medical Center ultimately settled the medical malpractice lawsuit brought by her family for $9.5 million.

This is generally seen as a low-risk procedure. What went wrong?

Error after error

The botched surgery took place in November 2020, when Julie Bond was referred by a Schofield Barracks physician to Tripler’s bariatric surgery center for postpartum weight treatment. The surgery was a laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. This operation involves the creation of a small pouch connected to the small intestine, thereby bypassing the stomach. However, the surgeons reattached her small intestine backwards. This led to a post-operation hernia three days after, and an emergency surgery that resulted in multiple complications.

During her emergency surgery, anesthetists damaged Bond’s lungs, and she developed blood clots. The facility’s clot-removing machine was not working, but instead of moving Bond to another hospital with a functioning machine, her doctors chose to treat her with a tissue plasminogen activator — a clot-busting drug more commonly known as tPA. Bond developed brain hemorrhages from the medication.

She then lapsed into a coma. When Julie re-emerged, she did so as a victim to “locked in” syndrome. A quadriplegic who was fully conscious, she could blink and cry, but she could not move, breathe or speak on her own. She ultimately developed sepsis and died on December 16, 2020. “Our kids have been robbed of a life with their mother,” her husband said at a local press conference.
Julie Bond arguably lost even more.

Is gastric bypass surgery really safe?

This is strictly a matter of medical judgment. Patients who are considering this surgery should seek independent and reliable medical advice.

Gastric bypass surgery is often recommended to treat obesity and other metabolic diseases when diet and exercise have not worked or when complications from other health conditions prevent weight loss. But while the surgeries have been successful in treating obesity, they have been associated with harmful side effects and long-term health complications.

Prior research has linked gastric bypass surgery to increased risks of diarrhea, nutritional deficiencies and stomach problems. The surgeries have been associated with more health complications and longer hospitalizations.

Studies have also shown those who underwent gastric bypass surgery faced higher risks of death and blood clots. Another study found the weight loss procedures may also increase the risk of drug addiction and addictions to hypnotic, sedative, anti-anxiety, stimulant, and opioid medications.

What about Tripler Army Medical Center?

This is not the first time the federal government has had to pay for medical malpractice at Tripler Army Medical Center. In just over 10 years, there have been nearly $100 million in settlements and legal damages.

In 2023 U.S. District Court Judge Michael Seabright awarded $30 million in damages to a former military family in an incident at the hospital that happened more than six years ago. In 2016, the Warren family took their baby daughter to Tripler in critical condition. The family’s lawyers asserted that she needed immediate life-saving surgery for twisted intestines.

She did not get it until 19 hours later at Kapiolani Medical Center. By then, doctors found that 90 percent of her intestine was necrotic. Today, she takes in most of her nutrition through jejunostomy tubing. Infections to her jejunostomy sites have caused heart and brain damage.

What’s wrong?

In recent months, much attention has been paid to the legal difficulties that service members face when they try to bring medical malpractice lawsuits against VA hospitals. The tragic events at Tripler, though, highlight the underlying problem - medical treatment that does not meet generally recognized professional standards.

Data collected  by the Department of Defense indicates that there have been:

• 160 suspensions of 30 days or more of military medical personnel between the middle of 2020 and 2022;
• Nearly 200 cases where military providers had action taken against their privileges to practice between 2018-2022; and
• In the same five-year timeframe, more than 250 cases where peer review panels found military providers failed to meet the basic standard of care.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are primarily a way to bring some financial relief to patients and their families who have been injured by negligent medical care. They serve another purpose, however, which is to focus public attention on an apparently systemic problem.