A North Carolina neurologist who claimed she suffered from an anesthesia overdose during surgery that forced her to quit practicing medicine has lost her lawsuit against her former employer.

A jury decided against Suzanne Hamilton Nutt, MD, from Gastonia, N.C., who sued CaroMont Health Services, its hospital formerly called Gaston Memorial and Gaston Anesthesia Associates, as well as the anesthesiologist and 2 nurses that cared for her during surgery. In the suit, Dr. Nutt claims that the caregivers administered an overdose of anesthesia and failed to respond properly during her laparoscopic hysterectomy. Dr. Nutt claims that the overdose caused lasting brain damage that forced her to quit working. She no longer has her medical license.

Dr. Nutt says she underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy in late 2010. After being released, she says she developed pain around the surgical incision and underwent an additional surgery in January 2011 to correct the issue. During that surgery, Dr. Nutt claims that the anesthesiologist and nurses were negligent when they administered a high dose of anesthesia and failed to act quickly when Dr. Nutt's blood pressure dropped. Dr. Nutt says she was expected to be released from the hospital on the day of the procedure, but instead had trouble waking up from surgery, suffered from headaches and was hospitalized for 11 days.

CaroMont Health Services and Gaston Anesthesia denied the accusations in published reports, saying the caregivers acted appropriately during the surgery. After a 5-week trial, the jury agreed and found the providers and healthcare organizations not negligent.

The lawsuit, filed in 2011, pitted the former neurologist against her colleagues and employer, the Gaston Gazette reported. Dr. Nutt, who previously worked as a neurologist at the Gaston Memorial Hospital, claimed in the lawsuit she was forced to quit practicing medicine due to lasting negative effects on her memory.

"Putting a patient under anesthesia always presents some risk; despite carefully following standard protocols, some patients can have an adverse reaction for any number of reasons. We are pleased the jury recognized that any alleged impairment this patient may have, though unfortunate, is not a consequence of the care she received from our anesthesia group," says Jeffrey D. Babb, MD, president of Gaston Anesthesia Associates, in a statement.

Attorneys for both Dr. Nutt and for the defendants did not immediately return requests for comment. A message left for CaroMont Health Services was not immediately returned.

Kendal Gapinski