Surgeons Made Big Error, 2 Patients' Lawsuits Allege

6/9/2005 - Chicago Tribune, Metro Section
By Kelly Kennedy, Tribune staff reporter

Lawyer says doctors cut into wrong side of head in operations

A Lombard woman filed suit Wednesday against a neurosurgeon, charging that he drilled into the rights side of her head and performed a surgery intended for the left side of her head.

"I was shocked," Rashida Aziz, 35, said at a news conference at her attorney’s office in the Loop. "I was crying. They made a mistake."

Aziz’s lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court and seeks at least $50,000 each from the doctor, two nurses and the Alexia Brothers Neuroscience Institute.

Azia said Dr. Konstantin Slavin, chief of the stereotactic and functional neurosurgery section of the University of Ilinois Medical Center in Chicago, performed brain surgery on Azia on Dec. 27. Azia had trigeminal neuralgia, a disease that causes electric-shocklike pain on one side of the face in short bursts.

Doctors treat the disease by making an incision that curls behind the ear, then allviating pressure on the trigeminal nerve root. But Aziz said Slavin had to perform the surgery again four days after operating on the wrong nerve, which left her with scars behind both ears.

The second operation cured her of her pain. The first, she said, left her with unnecessary pain.

Slavin said he was unable to talk about the case while it is in the court system.

A spokeswoman at the University of Illinois Medical Center said, "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending litigation."

Matthew Wakely, director of public relations for the Alexia Brothers Hospital Network, said Alexia administrators are upset by the lawsuit.

"We are moving immediately to have our name dropped from this lawsuit," Wakely said. "This patient has never been a patient at any Alexia hospital, she has had no procedure done here and has never even been in our system."

He said Slavin has medical privileges at Alexia as an independent contractor. The surgery was performed at University of Illinois Medical Center, the lawsuit said.

Aziz’s lawyer, Keith Hebeisen, said the case is an example of why Gov. Rod Blagojevich should not sign legislation putting a $500,000 cap on pain-and-suffering awards from doctors. Aziz’s case will not be affected by the legislation.

"There will be a court challenge if the governor signs the bill." Hebeisen said. "It won’t solve the problem. Lawsuits are not on the rise."

On May 2, Hebeisen filed a similar suit in Cook County Circuit Court for Elie G. Ghawi, 68, of St. Charles.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Ghawi said that on Sep. 4, 2004, r. Douglas E. Anderson, associate professor of neurological surgery at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, started to perform the same surgery Slavin had performed on Aziz on the wrong side of his head. Ghawi said Anderson realized his error, closed the incision and performed the surgery on the correct side the same day.

Anderson could not be reached for comment. A Loyola spokesman said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Ghawi’s lawsuit seeks at least $50,000 each from the doctor and Loyola University Medical Center.