A Perris electrician who checked into UCI Medical Center in 2024 for routine knee surgery is suing the University of California Board of Regents, alleging the surgeon and medical staff made a series of reckless mistakes and misrepresentations that led to amputation of his left leg.
Wayne Wolff, 58, was scheduled to undergo a standard outpatient procedure to repair his meniscus by the hospital’s head of sports medicine and UC Irvine team doctor Dean Wang.
But during surgery, the doctor mistakenly severed and cauterized what he said was a vein, but turned out to be a main artery, according to the lawsuit, filed Feb. 11. Despite Wolff’s intense pain and the lack of a pulse in his left foot, the problem went undiscovered for days by other hospital staff until it was too late to save the leg, the suit alleged.
Also filing the suit is Wolff’s wife, Lisa, a veteran emergency room nurse who suspected something was wrong but couldn’t get staff to listen.
“I look forward to adjudicating the case in front of the court and jury, in a public trial,” said the couple’s attorney, Jeoffrey Robinson. “The public deserves the right to hear this and, simply put, this should never happen to anyone again.”
The suit alleges negligence, abuse or neglect of a dependent adult, loss of consortium and infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified damages.
A spokesperson for the medical center said it had no comment on the pending litigation.
According to the suit, Wolff checked in on April 3, 2024, for the arthroscopic surgery at the hospital’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He does not have cancer and no one had warned Wolff of the potential for losing his limb or his life.
After Wang mistakenly cut what he said was a blood vessel, it took 35 minutes to control the bleeding, the suit said. When the surgery was complete, Wang allegedly told Lisa Wolff that he had “nicked a vein” and allegedly understated the amount of blood Wayne had lost, according to the suit.
What Wang had cut was the popliteal artery, which supplies blood to the left lower extremity.
“Plaintiffs allege that Dean Wang, MD, intentionally misinformed plaintiff Lisa Wolff of the character and severity of the injury caused during the surgery,” the lawsuit said, adding that Wang knew or should have known that the extensive bleeding indicated he had cut an artery.
Wayne Wolff was admitted to the post-anesthesia care unit to recover, unaware of the extent of the damage to his leg. Even as his pain intensified and his leg grew worse without adequate blood flow, he was not immediately relocated to an intensive care unit, but was instead moved for several days between post-anesthesia units, despite Lisa Wolff’s protestations, the suit said.
Meanwhile, Wang left for a two-day conference, turning Wolff’s care over to resident doctors who did not spot that his leg was, in essence, dying.
Wolff was in so much pain, screaming and crying, that he was put at one point on a cocktail of Dilaudid and ketamine intravenously, and Oxycodone 15 mg, to no avail. But no medical effort was made to determine the source of the pain, the suit said.
When Lisa Wolff stressed that the pain was not consistent with the type of operation her husband received, one doctor suggested he had abused narcotics at home, the suit said.
Wayne Wolf’s condition continued to worsen, his leg swelled, his skin was cool to the touch, he couldn’t move or feel his foot or toes. But his wife’s requests for an ultrasound were consistently denied, according to the suit.
Finally, two days after surgery, a doctor ordered an ultrasound — but it was later canceled by Wang, the suit said. Other doctors would not reinstate the ultrasound.
When Wolff’s sodium level dropped dangerously, his wife renewed her efforts to get him moved to an intensive care unit. After being allowed to stay overnight with her husband, Lisa Wolff was asked one night by two nurses to leave or be removed by security, the suit said.
On April 6, Wang again operated on Wayne Wolff and “inaccurately and recklessly” told his wife it was discovered that Wayne had suffered a blood clot in his artery, the suit said.
A vascular surgeon performed another surgery in an attempt to repair the leg and determined there wasn’t a blood clot but that the artery had been fully severed during the original surgery.
“Dean Wang, MD, never attended to plaintiff Wayne Wolff’s most glaring custodial care need — seeking out the source of his unbearable pain,” the suit said. “There is little doubt the use of simple imaging, such as an ultrasound, would have saved his leg. His most basic need was ignored, and recklessly neglected.”
When Wang told Lisa Wolff that her husband’s leg needed to be amputated, she asked why tests were not ordered to explore the lack of pulse or the origin of his extreme pain. According to the suit, Wang replied, “I don’t know.”
Lisa Wolff then asked Wang why he canceled the ultrasound that was ordered by another doctor.
The suit said Wang again responded, “I don’t know.”