By Jen Lynds
Bangor Daily News Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A Presque Isle urologist was found negligent in the treatment and care of a 66-year-old Presque Isle man who sought help from him for prostate issues in 2007. That negligence left the patient, Bernard D. McManus, plagued by severe pain until his death last year of unrelated causes, according to Celine M. Boyle, the attorney for McManus, and his widow, Connie. Boyle said that the decision against Dr. Imbesat Daudi came after a four-day jury trial before Justice E. Allen Hunter in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton.
“It was a very difficult process for my client and for the family,” Boyle said last week. “Mr. McManus wanted to see justice done. This case was filed in court against Dr. Daudi on Aug. 9, 2010. He tried very hard to make it to the end of the trial, but he died on Nov. 30, 2013, and the verdict came on Jan. 17, 2014.”
The jury awarded $203,350 to McManus’ estate for medical bills and $200,000 for general damages for pain and suffering, as well as $100,000 to Connie McManus for loss of consortium, according to Boyle.
Boyle said that in 2007, McManus visited Daudi at his practice, Aroostook Urology, which was located at 181 Academy St. in Presque Isle, in close proximity to The Aroostook Medical Center. He was diagnosed as suffering from an enlarged prostate. At that point, she said, Daudi opted to treat McManus using transurethral microwave therapy, or TUMT, in which a catheter is inserted into the urethra and microwaves are used to heat up and destroy excess prostate tissue.
Problems arose, Boyle said, when Daudi failed to properly confirm that the catheter was in the right place in compliance with practices recommended by the manufacturer and as followed by the average qualified urologist.
“As a result, Mr. McManus suffered a tremendous amount of pain,” she said. “He had to go through more procedures, and those procedures brought on more pain. He ended up in Bangor and Portland and then Boston trying to figure out what was going on.”
Boyle said that McManus required numerous medical procedures and surgeries to treat his condition, which included more catheters and tubes and a colostomy that was ultimately reversed. He eventually was diagnosed with a rectal fistula, and physicians in Maine referred him to specialists in Massachusetts to have it repaired.
“But despite the repairs, he still spent much of his life in pain,” Boyle said. “He was in persistent pain from the time this happened in 2007 until his death in 2013.”
Boyle said that Daudi’s medical license would not be affected by the jury’s verdict. His license to practice medicine in Maine remains valid until April 2015, according to the Maine Department of Regulatory Licensing and Permitting.
A phone number for Aroostook Urology is no longer in service. Officials at The Aroostook Medical Center said that Daudi has not been a member of the hospital’s active medical staff since 2011.
Mark Lavoie and David Herzer, attorneys representing Daudi, did not return calls seeking comment.
