Ex-Pats', Current Notre Dame Coach Files Suit Over Obesity Surgery

January 26, 2007

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis' medical malpractice lawsuit against two doctors involved in his near-fatal gastric bypass surgery is scheduled to start in Suffolk Superior Court next month.

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Weis had the surgery in June 2002 while he was still offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots after unsuccessfully battling chronic obesity for years. He has said he weighed about 350 pounds at the time.

Weis alleges in the lawsuit, scheduled to go trial Feb. 12, that Massachusetts General Hospital physicians Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin acted negligently and left Weis so close to death that he received the Roman Catholic last rites.

Weis began bleeding internally soon after the operation and was in a coma for two weeks.

"It was probably the biggest mistake of my life,'' Weis wrote of the procedure in his book, "No Excuses: One Man's Incredible Rise Through the NFL to Head Coach of Notre Dame.''

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who sat at Weis' bedside when the coach was in a coma, is expected to appear as a witness.

A lawyer for the doctors said they did nothing wrong.

"It's our position that everything the doctors did fell squarely within the standard of care,'' William J. Dailey Jr. told The Boston Globe.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe