The case of the gassed knee patient Leal v. Doe Hospital et al, Los Angeles Superior Court, May 1994

A 29-year-old man checks into the hospital for knee surgery, and his surgeon decides on a procedure that requires the man's knee to be distended by gas rather than more-widely used saline fluid. A technician from a small leasing company delivers and sets up a CO2 laser and gas insufflator and stays to monitor the equipment during the surgery. The leasing company has modified the insufflator's pressure relief valve and performed its own repairs, counter to the manufacturer's instructions.

During surgery the doctor finds he is not getting enough gas flow, and gas is found escaping from the pressure relief valve. The technician, who has not read the manuals that accompany the insufflator, blocks the valve, allegedly at the doctor's request. The doctor, however, claims changing the tubing solved the problem. In any case, gas is now delivered at such high pressure that it bypasses a thigh tourniquet and makes its way into the man's abdominal cavity, enters his chest and displaces his heart and lungs, causing cardiac respiratory arrest. The anesthesiologist does not notice any changes in the patient's condition until surgery is nearly complete, and 16 minutes pass before efforts to remove the gas from the man's chest begin. The man emerges from the ordeal with severe, permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen and remains hospitalized in a vegetative coma, leaving his wife to rear their three young children on her own. The wife sues on behalf of them both.

The damages:
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