Medical mishap turns golfer's FL vacation into tragedy

Harold Hicks, 67, a retired factory manager from Chesapeake, OH, came to Orlando in January 2006 with his wife and a group of friends who took golf outings together every year. After hitting the links and local restaurants for a few days with the group, Hicks developed stomach pains. They were annoying enough that he ducked out early from the group's Saturday dinner and skipped the Sunday football-watching party. His wife finally took him to Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee, where he was diagnosed with a blocked intestine that required surgery, the family said in a lawsuit against his doctor. In preparation for the operation, Kissimmee anesthesiologist Scott Wurm, MD, ordered a breathing tube inserted down Hicks' throat, according to the suit the family filed against Wurm and his medical group. The surgeon ordered Hicks' bloated stomach to be pumped before the operation started. The lawsuit contends that is the preferred procedure and should have been done. Nurses failed to accomplish it, and neither Wurm nor his nurse-anesthetist did it, the suit said.