Bloss and Kuhlmann Receive Unanimous Defense Verdict

HAT Gulfport attorneys Pete Bloss and Mary Margaret Kuhlmann received a unanimous defense verdict Oct. 17, 2019, at the end of a four-day trial in Biloxi, Mississippi. Bloss and Kuhlmann represented a Mississippi Gulf Coast ENT surgeon in an issue involving post-operative wound healing on a surgery he performed in 2014. The case boiled down to the surgeon’s use of a carbon dioxide gas laser which is used to control bleeding. The plaintiff claimed that the surgeon used the instrument “excessively,” causing the patient to develop a deep, permanent thermal injury to arteries that supply blood to the nose. The defense convinced the jury that the laser was used correctly and that the delayed wound healing, the formation of the initial hole and the failure of subsequent reconstruction operations were all due to the patient’s choice to continue smoking, in spite of repeated instructions to stop. After deliberating for approximately 30 minutes, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for the defendant.