An orthopedic patient who needed his leg amputated after an outpatient knee surgery was paid an $11.5 million from the University California Board of Regents, the Orange County Register reported Feb. 19.
Wayne Wolff was scheduled to have a left knee arthroscopic meniscus repair and high tibial osteotomy at University of California Irvine in April 2024. But during surgery a main artery was mistakenly severed and cauterized, and the issue wasn’t discovered by hospital staff until it was too late to save the leg, the report said.
Mr. Wolff filed a lawsuit in February 2025 alleging negligence and misrepresentations. While his trial was pending, Mr. Wolff’s legal team found that UCI Health destroyed video footage of the initial surgery and internal messages between his surgeon and staff.
California has a $470,000 cap on nonfatal medical malpractice. But Mr. Wolff’s lawsuit focused on allegations that didn’t have any settlement cap, the report said.
UCI Health and the University California Board of Regents didn’t immediately respond to a Feb. 20 request for comment from Becker’s.
