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Juana Magnaye, a 59-year-old woman, went to California Hospital medical Center in Los Angeles Ca. on April 13, 2007 for a routine gallbladder operation. What she got was a far more complicated and life threatening ordeal.

Dr. Tourah (aka Dr. Morad H. Akhondzadeh), a board -certified surgeon, performed the routine gallbladder operation on Mrs. Magnaye. Mrs. Magnaye returned to Dr. Tourah two days latter complaining of pain. Dr. Tourah performed a scan that showed an obstruction of the common bile duct. This was caused by the clips Dr. Tourah placed on the bile duct when he cut it…instead of the cystic duct that should have been clipped and cut.  After realizing that he screwed up, he chose not to admit to his error and fix it, but instead loaded Mrs. Magnaye into his personal vehicle and drove her to County USC hospital. Once there, he dropped her off in front of the emergency room.

Needless to say that Mrs. Magnaye brought a medial malpractice case against Dr. Tourah. Dr Tourah testified during the trial that, “He was taking Ms. Magnaye to a County-USC doctor, who was his mentor.” However, it was shown in trial that Dr. Tourah did not bring Mrs. Magnayes’ medical records or just taken scans with him when he carried her to the emergency room, and told her to tell the doctors that she was discharged from California Hospital two days ago. He also wrote in her chart that he was discharging her home and that she was feeling much better.

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The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury deliberated for two days in the case. Whoa be it to me why it took two days, but the jury came back this week to award Mrs. Magnaye a $395,000 verdict.