Douglas County malpractice trial ends in confidential settlement before testimony

Jurors were already in place in Lawrence when the Douglas County malpractice case shut down before it could begin. Potential jurors who had reported Monday morning for the trial were sent home after the parties announced a confidential settlement, ending a case built around a surgeon’s removal of the wrong organ at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka.

The underlying dispute centered on Jeannine Williams-Davidson, who went to Stormont-Vail expecting surgery to remove her left adrenal gland. Instead, according to the appellate record, Dr. Nason Lui misidentified part of her pancreas as the adrenal gland and removed a portion of the pancreas. The case was set to move into opening statements and testimony, but the settlement came at the last possible moment, before the public ever heard from witnesses or saw the evidence tested in court.

What remains public is the legal record that carried the case this far. Kansas appellate courts had already revived the lawsuit after the district court dismissed the malpractice claims for lack of an expert witness. In a published decision dated March 8, 2024, the Kansas Supreme Court allowed the case to proceed under the common-knowledge exception, with the appellate record stating that when a surgeon removes a healthy organ while leaving the intended organ untouched, expert testimony is not always required to prove negligence. The appellate opinion also said Williams-Davidson needed another procedure and an extended hospital stay, and that the hospital allegedly charged her for both surgeries, the extra stay and follow-up care.

What the public will not learn now is how much money changed hands, whether any non-monetary terms were included, or whether Dr. Lui, Stormont-Vail Hospital or related defendants admitted any fault. Those unanswered questions matter because the case reached Douglas County after years of litigation and multiple appellate reviews, only to end behind closed doors just as jurors were ready to hear it.

Douglas County jury portal records show jurors in Groups 5, 6 and 11 were told to report at 8:30 a.m. Monday in Division 2 at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St. in Lawrence. Parking was limited because renovation work was underway at the courthouse complex. The settlement spared jurors from service, but it also closed off the public airing of a case that raised direct questions about surgical error, hospital billing and accountability for local patients whose care ends up in the county’s court system.