Patient awarded €41,000 in damages

Vincent Gauci was awarded over €41,000 in damages after the First Hall of the Civil Court held an angioplasty carried out in 1999 at St Luke's Hospital led to the man suffering 33% permanent disability.

In 1999 Gauci, who at the time was 52, was recovered at St Luke's for an angiogram and an angioplasty due to a blockage of an artery between his neck and chest. Following an intervention by cardiologist Albert Fenech - today a Nationalist MP - he found that he had lost all sensation in his leg below the thigh, constant pain in the rest of the leg and back, and had to walk on crutches. Due to his state of health, Gauci lost his job and still attends the Pain Clinic for medication.

Court medical experts did not blame the cardiologist for the disability, however they said such incidents occur because the surgeon cannot see the part he is operating upon. Unfortunately in this case a nerve had been affected by the intervention.

Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi decreed that based on the expert's report the cardiologist was partly to blame for causing the man's disability. The court considered the victim's age at the time of incident and ordered the Chief Government Medical Officer and the cardiologist to pay over €41,732.35 to Gauci.