Shannon Hirschi v. Dr. Seth Riddle
The Honorable James R. Taylor
Fourth District Court for Utah County, #110402674
This Utah medical malpractice trial involves a young woman named Shannon Hirschi who had a neck mass removed by ENT specialist Dr. Seth Riddle when she was a young girl back in 1999. The claim is that there was a personal injury to the left spinal accessory nerve, the nerve that enervates the trapezius muscle on that side. This has resulted in a cosmetic and functional injury to the now 20-year old plaintiff.
Trial starts on Monday, August 1st. Plaintiff’s experts will be Dr. John Bogdarsarian (ENT) and Dr. John Crawford (pediatric neurologist). The defense experts will be Dr. Rodney Taylor (ENT- Maryland) and Dr. Charles Cho (Neurologist- Stanford University).
This is largely a general damages case with the physical limitations consequent to a non-developed left trapezius muscle in an active young woman. The claim alleges a failure to identify the nerve at the time of surgery as well identification of the injury afterwards when nerve restoration would still have been possible.
Medical specials (past) are in the range of $26,000. There are no future medicals. It was unclear at the time of mediation whether the general damage cap of $250,000 from 1999 or the cap of $450,000 from the time of filing would apply (I suspect the former).
There was a court-ordered mediation that went nowhere.
Plaintiff’s counsel: David Lambert
Defense counsel: Mike Miller (carrier is UMIA)
