Ballard, et al. v. Krishdeep Chadha MD

Summary

An Arizona state court jury heard opening statements March 24 in a medical malpractice lawsuit claiming a gastroenterologist’s alleged failure to properly diagnose an obstructed bowel caused a 41-year-old man’s death.

Attorney Brian Snyder of Snyder & Wenner, representing the family of Johnny Ballard, told a Maricopa County jury that Ballard’s death in 2019 was entirely preventable if Dr. Krishdeep Chadha had ordered a CT scan with contrast after Ballard arrived in the emergency room with excruciating stomach pain.

Snyder accused Chadha of ignoring classic signs of a bowel obstruction while hospital staff kept increasing Ballard’s opiate dosage to mask the pain, but Chadha’s attorney argued the CT scan without contrast dye ordered by Chadha met the standard of care, and that Ballard suffered from a rare condition that is difficult to diagnose and complicated further by his history of gastric bypass weight loss surgery.