Malpractice verdict for SF cardiologist S.F. COURTS

A jury has concluded that malpractice by a prominent San Francisco cardiologist caused the death of a 59-year-old woman a month after heart surgery.

After a one-month trial, the Superior Court jury voted 11-1 Wednesday to find that negligence by Dr. Peter Curran, president of the San Francisco Medical Society, was a "substantial factor" in the August 2009 death of Michelle Woo.

Jurors awarded Woo's daughter $138,000 for medical costs and funeral expenses and $1 million for emotional distress. That amount will be reduced by $750,000, however, because California law limits damages to $250,000 for pain and emotional harm caused by medical malpractice.

Woo, a bagel shop manager in San Francisco, underwent heart surgery at a Mountain View hospital in July 2009. Curran, her cardiologist, then prescribed daily doses of the drug Coumadin to thin her blood and prevent clotting.

He tested her blood Aug. 4, three days after her release from the hospital, found it in the normal range, and planned another test three or four weeks later, lawyers in the case said.

Curran conducted no further blood tests when Woo went to his office Aug. 12 for treatment of a rash, or when her family called the office Aug. 19 describing her lethargy and loss of appetite, said her daughter's lawyer, Chris Dolan. He said family members found her Aug. 26 unconscious and bleeding. She died the next morning.

If Curran had conducted more frequent tests, Dolan argued, he would have detected abnormal blood thinning that led to a fatal onset of internal bleeding. He said expert witnesses for both sides in the case agreed that Coumadin is a powerful drug whose effects must be monitored closely.

Curran's lawyer, Thomas Donnelly, said an expert witness on his side disagreed that Woo's death had been caused by Coumadin, a drug that Curran has been administering to heart patients for more than 20 years.

"Two extremely well-qualified experts believed he had provided appropriate care," Donnelly said. "We're disappointed the jury did not see it that way."