University of Iowa settles with heart surgery patient alleging negligence for $250K

IOWA CITY — Nearly seven years after a Mount Pleasant man underwent a coronary artery bypass graft at University of Iowa Health Care, UIHC has agreed to pay him $250,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging negligence.

The case involved a dispute over whether UIHC surgeons breached the standard of care and are guilty of medical malpractice in connection with a 49-year-old Phillip Swailes’ January 2018 heart surgery and follow-up care.

“Mr. Swailes had ongoing complications from the surgery and ultimately filed a lawsuit claiming the surgery had been negligently performed,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Peterzalek wrote to the State Appeal Board, which on Wednesday approved without discussion the settlement.

“Research indicated the average jury verdict for this type of case, should the plaintiff be successful, was approximately $1.5 million,” Peterzalek wrote. “The average settlement value was approximately $370,000, making the settlement in this case of $250,000 very reasonable.”

Swailes needed the procedure at the center of his lawsuit to treat chronic obstructive coronary artery disease and acute myocardial infarction, according to “undisputed facts” submitted by UI attorneys.

During the surgery, performed by two UIHC surgeons, blood vessels running along Swailes’s heart were grafted to other blood vessels “to bypass the blocked blood vessels and supply blood to his heart.”

Swailes’s medical records indicate his “left anterior descending coronary artery” was grafted to his “left internal mammary artery.” Six days later, he was discharged with instructions to follow up with his primary cardiologist at Mercy Iowa City, John Mehegan. And he had no major heart issues until nine months later in September 2018 when he was seen for chest pain.

On March 13, 2019, Swailes had another heart attack and was admitted to Mercy Iowa City. At that time, a cardiologist concluded a blockage of his graft caused the attack and placed a stent to open it.

The next day, Swailes’ primary heart doctor — Mehegan — wrote in a medical note that during the original UIHC surgery, the “internal mammary artery was intended to go to the left anterior descending. This graft appears to attach to a vein. It does not attach to an epicardial coronary artery.”

According to court documents filed by UIHC, “This is the first time Dr. Mehegan or any other health care provider ever indicated any concern regarding Swailes’ LIMA to LAD graft.”

According to the university, Swailes’s LAD has remained open, providing blood to his heart and “rendering all of his subsequent cardiac issues and complications unrelated to the alleged defect in Swailes’s LIMA to LAD graft.”

“However, the stent placed in Swailes’s LAD has caused the LIMA graft to close due to competitive flow rendering it impossible to visualize the actual graft on any subsequent angiographies” other than one conducted March 13, 2019.

Despite the UIHC assertion it did nothing wrong, Swailes said a disagreement exists — and a judge agreed in June, finding there are “matters that are proper for consideration by the fact-finder at trial.”

The case settled before the July 16 trial could occur.

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