A California jury has decided a hospital and anesthesiologist weren't negligent in the case of a 40-year-old woman who died in her sleep from internal bleeding after her iliac artery was nicked by a surgeon during a series of 3 procedures. The surgeon had already settled out of court.

Nicole Caruso had undergone a hysteroscopy to locate her IUD, the removal of the IUD and a tubal ligation, according to a story in the Fresno (Calif.) Bee.

She was discharged from Clovis (Calif.) Community Hospital 3 hours later, but remained in pain, according to Tom Caruso, her husband, who filed the charges. Mr. Caruso testified that he gave her Vicodin, prescribed by the surgeon, to help her sleep, but that when he tried to wake her at 5 a.m. to give her another pill, she was unresponsive.

It was later determined that more than 2 quarts of blood had drained from her punctured artery and that she had gone into cardiac arrest.

Jurors said they found inconsistencies in hospital paperwork, but not enough to determine that the hospital and anesthesiologist failed to meet the standard of care.

Jim Burger