Clamped After Surgery

As reported by Channel 9 News Denver, Richard Gellar, 61, of Aurora, Colorado, is suing the Denver VA Medical Center after surgeons left a clamp behind during his triple coronary artery bypass on August 30, 2005.

The civil trial, against the federal government, is being held before Chief Judge Wiley Y. Daniel.

At the end of Richard Gellar's bypass surgery, doctors realized that they were missing a clamp. When they couldn't locate it, they closed Kellar up anyway, and didn't tell him that it could have been left in his body.

When Kellar had to have an MRI six months later, for another medical problem, the clamp was discovered.  "They kept accusing me of moving and I said, 'No, I'm not moving.  They kept trying to do it over and over again. Finally, they took an X-ray of my chest and told me I had a piece of metal in my chest."

The 1.5 inch clamp, the size of a large paper clip, was located behind his heart. A fluoroscopy shows that it moves a little every time his heart beats.

Derek Cole, Kellar's attorney, said in his opening remarks, "The evidence will show the metal clamp in chest has been devastating to his life. His life has been turned upside down. It's killing him slowly. Mr. Kellar is blameless."

The government attorney in the case, Mark Bonera, contends that the clamp is doing no harm to Keller.  He said, "This is a case of an unfortunate mistake after he received successful bypass surgery that may have saved his life.  The clamp is safely sealed in the tissue behind his heart.  It is small and has dull edges. It will not cause infection.  Scar tissue is holding it in place."

Kellar's doctors agree with Bonera, contending that the clamp will not move to any other part of his chest.  Keller countered, "I said, 'How do you know it won't move?' They said, 'Oh it won't.'"

When Keller asked his doctors about having the clamp safely removed, he was just as skeptical of their response, "They said, 'It is too dangerous. It would be more dangerous to take it out, than leave it in.'"

Keller claims to have no energy, and experiences numbness in his hands, since the surgery. 

The VA Hospital offered him $100,000 and admitted their mistake. Kellar and his attorney did not accept that settlement as it wouldn't cover any additional claims filed thereafter.

Former acting U.S. Attorney, David Gaouette, defends the VA Hospital, "The government's evidence at trial will show that Mr. Kellar has not experienced any ill effects from the presence of the clamp.  The trial, now scheduled in March before Chief United States District Court Judge Wiley Y. Daniel, will determine not whether the VA hospital erred by leaving the clamp in Mr. Kellar's chest, a fact that the government acknowledges and for which it agrees that Mr. Kellar should be compensated, but rather how much federal taxpayer money Mr. Kellar should receive for a mistake that has caused him no harm or injury."

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