S.C. jury awards $30 million to doctor’s family

The family of a South Carolina doctor who died during joint-replacement has been awarded $30 million, after a jury found that the hospital and an anesthesiologist were responsible for the death. The award was for actual damages in the 2002 death of Dr. Asif Sheikh, 58. The jury did not award punitive damages. Sheikh died less than a day after double knee-replacement surgery at Lexington Medical Center.

The hospital is expected to be liable for $270,000 of the award. The rest was to be paid by anesthesiologist Dr. Gail Capell, said Geoffrey Fieger, an attorney for the family. The jury found surgeon Dr. Tom Gross was not responsible for Sheikh’s death. The hospital, Gross and Capell had denied liability, claiming Sheikh’s death stemmed from his “physical infirmities and a natural disease process.” (AP)