Pakistani doc will pay $70m for negligence

FRESNO, CA — A jury in Fresno, Calif., has ordered Pakistani American heart surgeon Dr. Pervaiz Chaudhry to pay about $ 70 million to the family of the man he left in a coma six years ago following heart surgery.

Chaudhry, who is currently in Pakistan with his family, conducted heart surgery in 2012 on then 70-year-old Silvino Perez, who, after the procedure, fell into a coma, in which he remains today.

Earlier this month, a jury in Fresno Superior Court ruled Chaudhry to be negligent for leaving the operating room and letting his physician assistant close the chest of Perez.

The jury on March 19 ordered Chaudhry to pay $55.6 million to Perez’s family. On March 20, the jury ordered that the 57-year-old doctor pay an additional $12.39 million in punitive damages to deter his conduct for leaving the operating room.

The jury awarded Perez $25 million for past and future pain and suffering as part of the $55.6 million. Now 76, Perez remains in a vegetative state, but he can feel pain, said Ricardo Echeverria of Claremont, one of three lawyers representing the Perez family.

Because Perez was the primary caretaker for his wife Maria, who suffers from symptoms of dementia, the jury awarded her $25 million for her pain and suffering and loss of love and support, it added. Additionally, Chaudhry was ordered to pay $5.6 million in medical bills to the Perez family, adding up to the $55.6 million.

The doctor testified that he supervised the closing of Perez’s chest by his physician assistant, Bella Albakova, and another surgeon, Dr. Kalwant Dhillon. He said he left the operating room after Perez was in stable condition with no surgical bleeding.

Chaudhry received his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. He did his residency in general surgery at Henry Ford Hospital at Wayne State, and then a thoracic surgery fellowship at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., following which he joined the Valley Cardiac Surgery Medical Group in Fresno.