samples, which they said led to "permanent injury and damage" —
specifically, physical and mental pain and suffering past and future,
and loss of full mind and body past and future.
In court, Mr. Huitt's wife of 45 years and co-plaintiff, Judy, said the cou-
ple's active sex life was devastated by Mr. Huitt's post-operative impo-
tence and incontinence, caused by nerve damage suffered during the sur-
gery. She testified that his penis had become shorter, and that he needs to
wear several urinary pads every day. "They never told us they were sorry.
Never once," she told the Des Moines Register of Iowa Clinic.
It gets worse. The Register also reported that, according to Judy
Huitt, the patient who actually had cancer was told he didn't, and was-
n't correctly diagnosed for at least another 4 months.
How the mix-up occurred
Court records show the pathologist explained how she believed the mix-
up happened. She testified that a barcode scanner read the barcode in a
stack of papers and then, when she reported the findings, the incorrect
patient was tied to the results. The pathologist went on to testify that this
type of thing had happened occasionally over the previous 10 years, but
that she'd caught previous errors. Her testimony also stated that she has
changed the way she handles pathology documentation since the incident.
Iowa Clinic's insurance company, MMIC, mounted a defense that, by
the time of the trial, acknowledged responsibility for the mishap, with
Dr. Trueblood and Iowa Clinic's director of pathology admitting negli-
gence, while also arguing that Mr. Huitt "sometimes had 'urgency' issues
with urination in the past, and that his other health issues could have
led to erectile dysfunction in the future," according to the Register.
The defense further argued that Mr. Huitt didn't deserve the $15 mil-
lion judgment he was seeking, stating that he could still mow his yard,
attend the State Fair and pick up his granddaughters from school —
J U L Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 2 3