Malpractice or justice?
maybe the Doc had been a Navy Corpseman in a previous life.
Just sayin’...
This definitley falls outside the 'standard of care', but is a known complication of any laparoscopic proceedure. However, the surgery having been done at Bethsda Navy Hospital, the nearest of kin would probably need to get permission from the government to bring a case. Perhaps a lawyer could clarify, if I have misstated the law.
Dying of a perforated gut is not a pleasant way to die. Multiple intraabdominal abcesses or generalized peritonitis, then generalized sepsis, then pulmonary complications, followed by renal failure and multiple system failure. With him being 78 years old he already had a strike or two against, and if he had concurrent disease such as cardiac, pulmonary, or otherwise problems, he was looking down the barrel of a difficult recovery.