Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994                   TAG: 9403150215
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN SAYS HYSTERECTOMY PERFORMED AGAINST HER WILL

Whited, a mother of three, contends she told her doctors she might want to have more children and was told the necessity of a hysterectomy was very remote.

A Montgomery County jury of five men and two women is being asked to decide this week whether two Montgomery County doctors are at fault and whether Whited should collect damages of up to $2 million.

The trial is scheduled through Wednesday.

Attorneys for her doctors, obstetricians and gynecologists David L. Meincke and William A. Isenhour, are expected to argue the procedure was necessary and that Whited signed consent papers that mentioned the possibility of a hysterectomy.

Bill Eskridge, who represents the two doctors, said Whited gave Meincke permission to do what was necessary to correct her problem. Eskridge said Meincke discovered during the surgery that Whited had an enlarged uterus with an unusual appearance and adhesions or scar tissues from a pelvic inflammation disorder. Meincke performed the hysterectomy after consulting with Isenhour, Eskridge said.

Jimmy Turk, Whited's attorney, told the jury that Whited entered Montgomery Regional Hospital on Nov. 3, 1989, seeking relief for severe pelvic pain. Whited agreed to have a dilatation and curettage (scraping of the uterus walls) and exploratory surgery. Whited told Meincke she did not want a hysterectomy.

"Dr. Meincke told her it would only be done if absolutely necessary," Turk said, such as a life-threatening problem.

Instead, Turk said, she awoke to find she had undergone a hysterectomy.

"I thought I had cancer," Whited, now 35, told the jury, crying sometimes during her lengthy and emotional testimony Monday.

Whited testified that her reservations about signing a surgical consent form that mentioned the possibility of a hysterectomy were dismissed by nurses at Montgomery Regional Hospital. A nurse told her it was standard procedure in case of absolute necessity, Whited said.

When Meincke visited her the next day, Whited said she asked why the hysterectomy was performed.

"His exact words were: 'Your insides were all to pieces and I had no choice,'" Whited said.

Whited said even after the hysterectomy, the pain she had originally complained about continued until she visited a specialist in North Carolina who successfully treated her with injections.