A former Amesbury woman who wanted to stop having to take heart medications so she could have another child, only to end up with permanent heart damage, has won a $4.3 million verdict in a lawsuit against two Boston doctors.
With interest, the total amount will be more than $6 million, said Denyse (Gonthier) Richter's lawyer, Annette Gonthier-Kiely of Salem, who is also Richter's sister. It's one of the larger jury awards in a medical malpractice case in recent history. The jury returned its verdict Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
Richter was a 39-year-old mother of three who wanted to have a fourth child when, in 2002, she saw Dr. Laurence Epstein, chief of the arrhythmia service at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Epstein was a noted specialist in a procedure that used radio frequency catheter ablations — using high-frequency radio waves to burn away abnormal cells that were causing the arrhythmia.
Richter, who now lives in Hampton, N.H., had been taking beta blockers to manage the condition for seven years but wanted to be able to stop taking the medication so she could have another baby.
The surgery was scheduled, and Richter was sedated and prepared for surgery. However, instead of Epstein performing the surgery, a different doctor, Kyoko Soejima, was sent in to do the procedure, Gonthier-Kiely said.
Soejima had recently completed a fellowship and was not board certified. She continued the procedure even when there were clear signs that Richter's heart conduction was about to be blocked, said the lawyer.
The associate had also noticed that there was a second condition that would still require medication, but never told the woman nor Epstein that the planned procedure would not eliminate her need for medication, instead going ahead with the ablation, Gonthier-Kiely said.
As a result of the damage, Richter had to have a pacemaker implanted, which, unlike those implanted in older patients, provides the primary electrical impulse to her heart, Gonthier-Kiely said. She is at risk for pacemaker-induced cardiomyopathy and infections.
The once-athletic woman has been left with frequent fatigue and has difficulty doing her usual activities, said her lawyer.
Had she known the risks — which lawyers for the two doctors argued she did know — she never would have elected to have the surgery, Gonthier-Kiely said.
The doctors also argued that she consented to the switch of doctors. Gonthier-Kiely said that's not true, since Richter was already under sedation when the switch was made. Nor was Richter's husband, Joseph, who was in the waiting room the entire time, ever told.
"We're thrilled that the jury got it," said Gonthier-Kiely. She said Epstein, who had "double-booked" his schedule the day of the surgery, may have thought nothing of handing it off to a less-experienced doctor, but, "If you're undergoing a heart procedure, it's the most important thing in the world to you."
"She didn't do it for the money," Gonthier-Kiely said. "She did it for the principle. This was about patient rights."
Richter is the daughter of the late Robert Gonthier Sr., a longtime leader in Amesbury who served as chairman of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee.
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