Mom Who Lost Reproductive Organs to Surgeons to be Paid Quarter Million Dollars

Michel Chebat

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars – that is what twenty-two-year-old Jenny Bonilla received from a medical negligence case that left her without a womb and left ovary. Bonilla was twenty-years-old when she started with an abdominal pain and she went to the southern regional hospital from where she was transferred to the Western Regional Hospital where a laparotomy surgery was carried out. This surgery is an exploratory surgery where a large cut is made through the abdominal wall to access the abdominal cavity. But when Bonilla woke up – an irreversible damage had already been done – her womb and left ovary were taken out by Doctor Landero – leaving her without the chance to give birth. With her attorney, Bonilla sued and took the matter before the court.  On Monday, Justice Sonya Young ordered the Government of Belize to pay two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars to Bonilla. Bonilla’s Attorney Michel Chebat explains the ruling.

Michel Chebat, Attorney

“We instituted an action to try and get damages for what was done to her. The attorney general, in this case, admitted liabilityafter receiving the expert’s testimony and today the Supreme Court gave judgment in terms of the number of damages to be awarded to the young lady for what was done to her. The court awarded two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the young lady. It is a precedent-setting case in the sense that this is the first award the first judgment dealing with this type of injury that is to say the womb and the ovary.  In this case, the expert report was very damning of the doctor from a mis-diagnosis from the very inception from having removed my client’s womb and ovary without getting her consent. This was a particularly egregious case. The expert evidence in this case in her findings of the steps that he took, everything he did from the very beginning was wrong, even in diagnosing my client. I think these cases have major implication for the public and there is certainly a public interest to know what has happened.”