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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, October 11, 2001

Jury awards Kapahulu woman $975,000 in malpractice case

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Circuit Court jury has awarded nearly $975,000 to a Kapahulu woman and her husband following a medical malpractice trial in which the couple said the woman's doctor failed to fully inform her of the risks associated with a diagnostic procedure.

Honolulu attorney Roy Bell III said his client, Cindy Au, did not maintain that the procedure was done incorrectly, but that she was not adequately informed that it might lead to pancreatitis, a very painful and potentially fatal disease.

In addition, Bell said the civil lawsuit charged that Au, who was 39 when the endoscopic procedure was done at St. Francis Medical Center, never gave permission to Dr. Glenn M.L. Pang, a gastroenterologist, to perform a surgical procedure on her while she was sedated to undergo the diagnostic test.

Au, now 43, was hospitalized 11 times since 1997 for complications resulting from the procedure, underwent major surgery for the problem and eventually went to the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn., for specialized treatment.

Attorney Stanley Chow, who represented Pang in the eight-day trial before Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna, could not be reached to comment.

The jury on Tuesday awarded Au and her husband more than $100,000 for medical, hospital and travel expenses, and $865,000 for pain, suffering, emotional distress and loss of consortium.