Jury awards $100,000 in malpractice case
With his kneecap sliding in and out of place, opinions from three doctors in hand, and a love for baseball and football, Matt Tangen believed knee surgery was his best option to keep playing sports.
So, the teenager, who was about to begin his junior year at Davenport West High School, went under the knife in August 2002.
But during his recovery, a staph infection formed at the site of the surgery.
The improper treatment of that infection, Tangen’s attorneys said, recently led a Scott County jury to award their client $100,000 in a lawsuit filed against orthopedist Ralph Congdon.
Problems with the infection meant a half-dozen more surgeries, weeks away from school, the end of his competitive sports endeavors and doctors telling him he will have a lifetime of trouble with the knee, said Tangen, his mother, Marsha, and his attorneys.
“If you saw him run, you’d think he was 50 years old,” Marsha Tangen said. “It’s painful to watch.”
So instead of playing ball his senior year of high school, he was an umpire. And instead of being out on the field in college, he coached a junior varsity baseball team in Muncie, Ind., which is home to his school, Ball State University.
“It hurts in the morning, getting up and getting it loose. As a 21-year-old, I don’t live a sedentary lifestyle. I am either helping move somebody or trying to stay active and work out a little bit. If I am up walking around for a half-hour, I feel it,” he said.
Richard Batcher, who defended Congdon during the seven-day trial, said they were hoping for a verdict in the doctor’s favor.
“We thought the care was appropriate,” he added.
Tangen’s case is one of few medical malpractice cases to result in a Scott County jury verdict for the plaintiff in recent years. A review of jury verdicts found most malpractice cases have ended in dismissal, a settlement, or a verdict in favor of the physician or medical group involved.
Some exceptions in recent years are:
-- Judy Woodson won a $109,919 verdict against Charles Bruyntjens of Q-C Pulmonary Consultants in May 2005 after the death of her 20-year-old son, Javell, from pneumonia.
-- Patrick Quinn won a $1.7 million verdict in May 2004 against physicians Richard Kasper and Douglas Khoury in the death of his wife, Ardella Quinn, a 51-year-old woman who died from complications of a ruptured appendix in 2000. The parties agreed to a $1.2 million settlement to avoid an appeal.
John Riccolo, who represented Tangen, said jurors generally are becoming more conservative when it comes to awarding damages in medical malpractice cases.
“People are hesitant in our society these days to compensate for pain and suffering and loss of function,” he said. “They seem to be willing to compensate for out-of-pocket expenses and lost wages. They don’t value quality of life. This was a quality-of-life issue in terms of what he is able to do.”
Tangen’s physicians have told him to anticipate reconstructive knee surgery at some point, he said.
Meanwhile, he is pursuing a degree in sports management. He recently interviewed for an internship with the Kansas City Royals, a Major League Baseball team.
“He just went up to see his doctor at Iowa,” Marsha Tangen said. “What they told him is: no running, no jogging, no sports. He is limited to walking, swimming, riding an elliptical. When you’re talking a kid that lived and breathed sports ... ”
Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.