Kansas

Stormont Vail doctor who removed wrong organ can be sued after tie in Kansas Supreme Court

Published

2 years ago

March 13, 2024

Stormont Vail doctor who removed wrong organ can be sued after tie in Kansas Supreme Court

A rare tie in the Kansas Supreme Court means a Stormont Vail Health patient will be allowed to continue her lawsuit against the Topeka hospital and a doctor who removed the wrong organ.

When Jeannine Williams-Davidson had a surgery to remove her adrenal gland at Stormont Vail, physician Nason Lui removed part of her pancreas instead.

The patient sued, but courts have been divided on whether you need to be a medical expert to decide that a doctor violated the standard of care by cutting out a chunk of a healthy organ while leaving untouched the one with a noncancerous tumor.

Medical expert not needed when common sense is enough

Kansas law typically requires plaintiffs to offer expert testimony in medical malpractice cases because jurors generally are not experts in medicine. But there is a common sense and knowledge exception that applies when a patient’s care was “so obviously lacking” and “the results are so bad” that it would be apparent to an average person.

Douglas County District Court previously ruled against the patient because she didn’t have a medical expert. That dismissed the claims without having a jury trial.

A divided three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals disagreed and reversed the decision in July.

“When the surgeon misidentifies and removes all or part of a healthy organ, leaving the organ the surgeon intended to operate on untouched, the common-knowledge exception alleviates the need for expert testimony to establish the standard of care or a breach of that standard,” wrote judges Amy Fellows Cline and Jacy J. Hurst.

Judge David E. Bruns dissented, arguing it shouldn’t apply because it was inadvertent.

“The average lay person would not have the knowledge necessary to determine whether this mistake rose to the level of a breach of the appropriate standard of care by a surgeon,” Bruns wrote. “In other words, I do not believe it is patently obvious that the bad result occurred due to a breach of reasonable care.”

The doctor and hospital then appealed to the Supreme Court.

More: Kansas court rules Stormont Vail doctor who removed the wrong organ can still be sued

Kansas Supreme Court tied

Ties are not common at the Kansas Supreme Court, which has seven justices. But it has happened in the past, at least as recently as two years ago, when a justice recused himself from a case that he had been an attorney on before joining the bench.

When a tie happens at an appellate court, the lower court ruling stands.

In this ruling, Justice Eric Rosen recused himself and the other six were equally divided. Justices Dan Biles, K.J. Wall and Melissa Taylor Standridge would have affirmed the Kansas Court of Appeals reversal of the Douglas County District Court. Chief Justice Marla Luckert and justices Caleb Stegall and Evelyn Wilson would have reversed the appeals court and sided with the district court.

Friday’s ruling didn’t include any legal reasoning from the two camps.

Attorneys argue over common knowledge

Prior to Friday’s ruling, the high court held oral arguments on Jan. 31.

Lui and Stormont Vail were represented by Cynthia J. Sheppeard, of Topeka law firm Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds & Palmer.

Sheppeard said that Lui and a second doctor who assisted on the laparoscopic surgery him would “testify that what happened sometimes happens, even with the best of care.” She said he admits he made a mistake, but a mistake doesn’t necessarily mean it was negligence.

“They were so close together, and the adrenal and the pancreas looked so much alike, and there was blood in the field, he’d been removing the adhesions,” she said. “Between the two of them, they thought they were removing the adrenal.”

Williams-Davidson and her husband, Jeffrey Davidson, were represented by Jason Belveal, of Belveal Law Office in Holton.

“I do believe that if you say to a person, I went in for surgery and my doctor left behind the diseased organ, cut out a healthy organ — or a big part of a healthy organ — any person off the street is going to go, ‘Yikes, something went wrong on that,’” Belveal said.

Belveal said a jury should get to decide, after hearing the facts of the case, whether that’s medical malpractice. He described opposition to common knowledge applying in this case as “elitist protection.”

“Is it justice for all, or is it justice for those folks who can afford an expert to come in and say, ‘No, this this is wrong,’” he said, adding that “at some point, we should trust the jurors to be able to make certain decisions.”

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

Source link

Click to comment

Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

Published

9 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Saturday after Wednesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Wednesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

6A Boys West Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka High 57, Washburn Rural 50 (will play Maize Saturday)
Junction City 70, Dodge City 56 (will play Derby Saturday)
Manhattan 58, Wichita-Northwest 56 (will play Wichita-East Saturday)

4A Boys East Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 62, Louisberg 57 (will play Bishop Miege Saturday)
Atchison 74, Wamego 43
Hayden 72, Independence 56 (will play Atchison Saturday)
Eudora 76, Santa Fe Trail 68

GIRLS

5A West Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hays 80, Topeka West 18
Eisenhower 55, Seaman 41
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 71, Emporia 41

5A East Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Shawnee Heights 89, Sumner 15 (will play Pittsburg Saturday)
Basehor-Linwood 74, Highland Park 28 (will play Piper Saturday)

3A Pomona-West Franklin Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Osage City 75, Columbus 31 (will play Frontenac Saturday)

3A Sabetha Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Silver Lake 48, Nemaha Central 26 (will play Riley County Saturday)
Riley County 51, Jeff West 40 (will play Silver Lake)

Source link

Kansas

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

RESULTS: NE Kansas high schools to play Friday after Tuesday sub-state wins

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Tuesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.

WIBW Scoreboard

BOYS

5A East Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

KC Washington 68, Highland Park 38
Shawnee Heights 49, De Soto 37 (will play Leavenworth Friday)

5A West Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Topeka West 55, Hutchinson 32 (will play Bishop Carroll Friday)
Emporia 61, Great Bend 41 (will play Maize South Friday)
Seaman 73, Valley Center 51 (will play Hays Friday)

3A West Franklin Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Burlington 60, Osage City 35 (will play Baxter Springs Friday)

3A Sabetha Boys: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Hiawatha 73, Oskaloosa 48 (will play Heritage Christian Friday)
Silver Lake 58, Sabetha 39 (will play Perry-Lecompton Friday 7:30 p.m.)

GIRLS

6A West Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Washburn Rural 60, Wichita South 32 (will play Derby)
Topeka High 69, Maize 45 (will play Liberal)
Manhattan 67, Free State 21 (will play Wichita East)

4A East Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rock Creek 71, Parsons 23 (will play Tonganoxie)
Wamego 54, Labette County 33 (will play Bishop Miege)
Hayden 2, Athison 0 (will play Baldwin)

2A Eskridge/Mission Valley Girls: Tuesday’s sub-state semifinal results

Rossville 71, KC Christian 49 (will play Maur Hill-Mount Academy)
Lyndon 61, Jeff. Co. North 31 (will play Valley Heights)
Valley Heights 65, Doniphan West 41 (will play Lyndon)

Source link

Kansas

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Doe v. State of Kansas | American Civil Liberties Union

In early 2026, the Kansas state legislature passed SB 244, a law which prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms on government property that align with their gender identity and establishes a private right of action that allows anyone who suspects someone is transgender and in violation of the law to sue that person for “damages” totaling $1,000.

The law also invalidates state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers that reflect the carrier’s gender identity. In February 2026, transgender people across the state received letters from the state Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles informing them that their driver’s licenses “will no longer be valid,” effective immediately. SB 244 also prohibits transgender Kansans – or those born in Kansas – from updating the gender marker on state-issued birth certificates and driver’s licenses in the future.

The same day SB 244 went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP filed a lawsuit challenging SB 244 in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of two transgender men who had their driver’s licenses invalidated under the law. The lawsuit charges that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

“The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

Source link