Lincoln doctor found not at fault Patient’s attorney claimed gallbladder wasn’t completely removed

BANGOR – A Superior Court jury in Bangor Wednesday decided by a 6-2 vote that a Lincoln surgeon had done nothing wrong in a gallbladder removal operation three years ago.

Brenda St. Louis, 49, had gallbladder surgery in June 1999 then claimed the pain returned after the operation performed by Dr. Jack Nobel. The surgery took place at the Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln.

St. Louis’ attorney, Jodi Nofsinger of Lewiston, said an ultrasound taken several weeks after the surgery revealed part of the gallbladder remained inside St. Louis’s abdomen. A second surgery was performed at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor four months later when Dr. Donald Clough reportedly removed the rest of the organ.

Nobel, 59, claimed the organ removed by Clough was not the gallbladder but an attached duct that had inflated to several times its normal size. His attorney, George Schelling of Bangor, produced an expert witness who corroborated Nobel’s claim. Dr. Stephen Schwaitzburg, a surgeon at the New England Medical Center in Boston, testified that he had seen similar cases twice in his career when a duct was mistaken for part of a gallbladder. The prosecution also presented two witnesses, St. Louis and Clough.

The malpractice trial began Monday at the Penobscot County Superior Court. Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm presided.

St. Louis said she does not plan to pursue the matter further but was surprised at the jury’s decision.

“I think the jury was wrong,” St. Louis said through tears. “I don’t think they understand what happened, but that’s how [their decision] came out.”

St. Louis, a former nursing assistant, had sought $300,000 in compensatory damages for pain and suffering. Punitive damages usually are not awarded in malpractice cases or in civil negligence cases. Nobel has been a general surgeon in the Lincoln area for 10 years. A New Jersey native, he graduated from Dartmouth College and attended medical college at the University of New Mexico. He received extended training in surgery in Manhattan and in Michigan.

“I’m very gratified that the jury, after careful deliberation, agreed Dr. Noble is a good doctor and provided good care and served this patient well,” Schelling said.

NEWS reporter Derek Breton contributed to this report.