A Washington state jury awarded roughly $8 million on Friday to a man claiming he suffered a traumatic brain injury after being dropped on the operating room floor following routine shoulder surgery, and the full trial was recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The King County jury awarded plaintiff Jason Suplizio $7,762,500, along with $280,500 for his wife, Abigail. The defendant in the case, Proliance Surgeons Inc., conceded liability for the underlying accident but argued that Suplizio didn’t actually sustain a brain injury in his fall from the operating table.
Plaintiff attorney Nick Rowley of Trial Lawyers for Justice, who represents the Suplizos along with co-counsel Courtney Rowley, told CVN after the trial parties reached a ‘high/low’ settlement agreement before the jury began deliberations, but declined to comment on the amounts involved. In open court, the plaintiffs sought an award of roughly $50 million, while Proliance insisted that any damages be limited to between $750,000 and $850,000.
The trial resulted from a 2021 accident where Suplizo’s upper body slid off the gurney as he came out of anesthesia, while his legs remained tied in place. He claimed his head hitting the operating room floor caused a traumatic brain injury that transformed an outgoing, family-focused, outdoorsman into a recluse plagued by common TBI symptoms like headaches and brain fog.
Rowley told CVN the Suuplizo’s reached a confidential settlement shortly before trial with the anesthesiology group staffing the outpatient surgical center where the accident occurred, and as the sole remaining defendant, Proliance agreed to a high/low agreement “towards the end of trial.”
Rowley spoke to jurors after the trial, which he said posed a real challenge for the panel.
“They really struggled and deliberated for two full days straight,” Rowley said. “The jurors were split. Some wanted to give a lot more.”
The Suplizios were also represented by John Kawai of Trial Lawyers of Justice, and Scott Blair and Cody Branstetter of Brain Injury Law of Seattle.
The case is captioned Jason Suplizio et al. v. Proliance Surgeons Inc., et al, case number 23-2-25448-1 SEA in King County Superior Court, Washington.
