Doctor causes surgical complications in medical malpractice case. The firm was able to help the family of a 48-year-old hairdresser recover a sizable award from the doctor who was accused of causing a fatal complication during surgery. While performing abdominal surgery on the plaintiff the surgeon perforated the woman’s small intestine. Due to the resulting hole in the woman’s intestine the patient developed peritonitis, a serious infection. Despite additional surgery to correct the situation and massive doses of antibiotics, the woman’s situation worsened. She developed sepsis, or blood poisoning, and died less than a month after the initial surgery. Despite the surgeon’s contention that he was not responsible for the perforation (he maintained that it was a spontaneous event occurring after surgery) and that the plaintiff was suffering from pneumonia and common pelvic inflammatory disease, which instead could have contributed to her death, the case settled for one and a half million dollars.