Family files med-mal suit after man dies during cancer surgery

Inflicted with lung cancer, Archie Perkins Jr. underwent surgery last July only to die on the operating table.

Perkins' family claims the attending surgeon, Dr. Stephen LaMendola, botched "a relatively simple procedure" and "contributed to Perkins death." They filed suit against Dr. LaMendola on March 19 in the Jefferson County District Court.

According to the suit filed by Lillie and Archie Perkins III, on July 7, 2007, the late Perkins went to Dr. LeMendola to have cancer surgically removed from his lung; "however, due to Defendant's negligence, Mr. Perkins suffered from complications during the surgery and died on the operating table."

"Defendant had a legal duty to provide the medical care to Archie Perkins Jr., which physicians of ordinary prudence would have provided under the same or similar circumstances," the suit said.

Perkins' family alleges Dr. LaMendola failed to use an adequate technique to prevent hemorrhaging "during a relatively simple procedure."

"By using the clamp technique, Dr. LaMendola failed to control the blood vessels and air passages in the segment resected," the suit said. "This allowed bleeding from blood vessels to enter the airway causing suffocation and death."

To cement their allegations, the plaintiffs included the medical opinion of M.D. Brian Camazine, who said, "In summary, it is clear that Dr. LaMendola was negligent and that this negligence was the proximate cause, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, of the death of Mr. Perkins."

The suit lists the following acts of negligence allegedly committed by Dr. LaMendola: