The lawyer for a woman who is suing Abington Memorial Hospital over a botched appendectomy is asking court approval to add a claim for punitive damages now that he has uncovered evidence that the hospital routinely assigns a surgeon-in-training to operate on patients who have no private health insurance.
Attorney Aaron J. Freiwald of Kline & Specter argues in his motion to amend that if Yoon Kyeong Lee had the financial means to get private insurance, “a fully qualified attending surgeon would have seen her in person even though it was in the middle of the night, and would have actively and directly participated in her surgical procedure.”
