The West Virginia Record reports that a Mason County physician is facing a second medical malpractice suit shortly after a similar suit was dismissed two months ago. In May, Dr. Shrikant K. Vaidya had a lawsuit against him dismissed because the case was seven years old – too long to effect service or process. However, a month after the case was dismissed, a new suit was filed by Noell Beth and Donald Stivers of Middleport, Ohio, with similar claims and under the same legal representation.
In both cases, Pleasant Valley Hospital, located in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is named as a co-defendant.
According to court records, Frank Meadows of Henderson, West Virginia, filed a suit because Vaidya failed to properly treat him for Peyronie’s Disease, which causes a build up of plaque in the penis and causes sex to be painful or impossible. However, since Meadows did not file his medical malpractice complaint until seven years after it happened, the case did not hold enough water to continue in the opinion of Mason County Circuit Judge Thomas C. Evans III. Meadows had attempted a lawsuit in July of 2000, shortly after the event occurred, but his previous attorney had to disqualify himself when he was elected a circuit judge himself. Although a number of other attorney agreed to help Meadows with his case, no one could find a doctor who would testify against Vaidya due to his illegible notes.
The Strivers have filed a similar suit, although in this case the patient is female instead of male. Noell Beth Stivers claims that Vaidya unsuccessfully treated her for urethral dilation on at least two occasions in 2002. There are no clear records as to when Stivers was treated, but her attorney claims that “Vaidya refused to terminate the procedure when the Plaintiff repeatedly demanded that he do so and Defendant Vaidya continued the procedure after the Plaintiff’s repeated demands that he terminate the procedure.”
Stivers is not only accusing Vaidya of medical malpractice, but also of battery, since she asked the doctor to stop the procedure and he allegedly did not, even after repeated demands. She claims that he “not only failed to improve her medical condition, but also caused Stivers to suffer serious and permanent injury to her urological system in the form of permanent incontinence.”
Court records show that Stivers did not become aware of her injuries until she visited with a Mason family doctor, Dr. Danny R. Westmoreland, in 2006. The injuries she sustained allegedly include loss of enjoyment of life, medical expense, humiliation, embarrassment, inconvenience, and pain in the past, present, and future.
The monetary damages are unspecified.