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Plaintiff: 'I would have never trusted him'

Karen Dorn Steele
Staff writer
August 6, 2008

As her lawyers wrapped up their side of a malpractice case Tuesday against Spokane dentist Dr. Patrick Collins, 29-year-old Kimberly Kallestad testified that Collins assured her he’d never had a bad outcome – and that she was the only patient who’d complained of severe pain after a series of major jaw surgeries.

“He said he was very pleased with the result, but I was in unbearable pain. He said all his other patients did great and they didn’t really know what had happened to me,” Kallestad said.

More of Collins’ patients may get their say on those assurances.

A half dozen people describing themselves as former patients of the oral surgeon have called the newspaper since Friday, when the first story on Kallestad’s trial was published.

Those callers – who have asked not to be identified because they may become rebuttal witnesses in Kallestad’s trial – say Collins reassured them he had a near-perfect surgical success rate but left them with chronic pain and disabling jaw problems. They’ve contacted Kallestad’s lawyer, Mary Schultz, about their experiences with Collins.

In her continuing testimony this week, Kallestad said several jaw operations that Collins performed in 2000 and 2001 to correct damage sustained in a sledding accident left her with disabling pain that spread from her face to her back and limbs.

Kallestad said she also noticed other bodily changes.

“As a girl it was very hard,” Kallestad said, as she began to grow hair on her chest, face and stomach and suffered a “severe loss” of breast tissue, plus bruising and nosebleeds. Those problems continue today, she added.

Under questioning from Schultz, Kallestad said she wasn’t aware Collins had injected her with a series of powerful steroids during the 2001 surgeries and still doesn’t know how many steroids Collins gave her.

The nature of the consent forms she signed is a major issue in the trial. Kallestad said she was misled, while Collins’ lawyers have said in court documents that the informed consent was proper and his surgeries met the standard of care.

In September 2001, Kallestad said, Collins approached her to suggest an experimental operation – a total jaw replacement, part of a research study conducted by TMJ Implants Inc., of Golden, Colo.

“Dr. Collins asked if I’d do him a favor and help him out with a study he was doing. He promised five years of free follow-up,” Kallestad said. “I said I might not be here in five years – I’d be graduating from law school.” Although she’d signed medical release forms for the other surgeries, Kallestad said, she balked when she was shown the metal jaw Collins wanted to implant in her face.

“They’d told me the pain was all in my head. Then I was told I needed another surgery – so it wasn’t in my head. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

Kallestad told the jury that constant pain forces her to lie down most of the day, that it takes her hours to shower and she lives on smoothies her mother makes for her. She’s stopped taking college correspondence courses to complete her undergraduate degree because of the pain.

Jurors submitted written questions to Kallestad. One juror asked whether, knowing what she knows now, she’d still trust Collins.

“If I had had the knowledge I have now, I would never have trusted him. … It comes down to a question: How do you know you can trust your doctor?” Kallestad replied.

Another juror asked whether Kallestad thinks Collins made a mistake – or intended to hurt her.

“I don’t believe it was a mistake … I do not know why this happened, but my only hope is by being here, I could prevent it from happening again,” Kallestad replied. She also said she has hope for a future medical breakthrough and continues to take all her medications and keep her doctor’s appointments.

Daniel Harper, a certified public accountant for the plaintiffs, testified that her disability will cost from $1.4 million to $2.3 million in lost wages over her work life, depending on whether she’d earned a bachelor’s degree or a law degree. Another expert calculated her future lifetime medical costs and home care at between $4.7 and $6.3 million.

As the defense case began Tuesday afternoon, attorney John Versnel III called economics expert Don Reddington to rebut Harper’s calculations.

Reddington calculated Kallestad’s lifetime economic losses at $566,188, assuming she didn’t finish college, and $850,113 if she’d finished her undergraduate English degree. The defense expert said her losses would be $1.1 million for a forgone law degree, which he assumed she would not have finished. He also calculated a lower lifetime cost estimate for medical and home care, between $3.4 million and $4.6 million.

Reach Karen Dorn Steele at (509) 459-5462 or karend@spokesman.com.

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