CHARLESTON – A Fayette County woman says she was sent to CAMC to have an appendectomy. Instead, one of her ovaries was removed.
Darnequa Hickman filed her complaint December 29 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Charleston Area Medical Center.
diTrapano
“This is another atrocity delivered at the hands of a CAMC surgeon,” attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “We look forward to bringing Ms. Hickman the justice she deserves.”
According to the complaint, Hickman went to Montgomery General Hospital on November 13, 2024, with abdominal bloating, pain, dull pressure, chills, sweats and nausea. Emergency Department records, including a CT scan, showed an acute inflammatory process consistent with appendicitis or colitis with contained bowel perforation.
A transfer to CAMC Memorial Hospital was initiated and accepted, and another CT scan showed appendicitis with micro perforation. Drains were placed, and Hickman was put on antibiotics.
“The decision was made to proceed conservatively, and Ms. Hickman was discharged home,” the complaint states.
On January 8, 2025, she went back to CAMC Memorial for a follow-up appointment, and she had an interval laparoscopic converted to open appendectomy” that same day by Dr. Brandon S. Radow, who is the program director, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine.
Radow’s pre- and post-operative diagnosis was the same: “complicated appendicitis with perforation s/p drain.” His operative note says a “window was created around the structure, presumed to be the appendix down to the base. The appendix was divided between two endoloops, and the specimen was removed and sent for permanent pathologic evaluation.”
The analysis was performed that same day by Dr. Milton Plata, a CAMC employee who completed his fellowship in anatomic pathology at Harvard Medical School.
“The ovary shows corpora albicantia and is positive for estrogen receptor (block 1K),” Plata wrote in his findings. “No infection or appendix structure is identified.”
“Dr. Radow had removed one of Ms. Hickman’s ovaries rather than her appendix,” the complaint states. “At no point post-operatively did Dr. Radow inform Ms. Hickman that he failed to remove her appendix or that he removed an entire ovary.
“Dr. Radow did not attempt reschedule Ms. Hickman to undergo an appendectomy or refer her to an OB/GYN for follow-up care and management now that Ms. Hickman was missing an ovary.”
On August 25, Hickman went to Montgomery General again with abdominal pain and vomiting. She again had a CT scan and was transferred to CAMC. On August 29, she had surgery again, this time by Dr. Kayla M. Piehler, a colleague of Radow. The pre- and post-operative diagnoses were “stump appendicitis.”
“Dr. Piehler’s diagnosis of ‘stump appendicitis’ presupposes that a section of the appendix was previously removed via appendectomy,” the complaint states. “Intraoperatively, Dr. Piehler’s note failed to visualize the appendix stump.”
Notes list the procedures performed as exploratory laparotomy, extensive lysis of adhesions, right hemicolectomy with stapled ileocolic anastomosis and small bowel resection with stapled anastomosis.
“Dr. Piehler failed to chart that she removed Ms. Hickman’s appendix,” the complaint states, also noting Plata again examined the specimens from the procedure that same day. “Dr. Plata’s August 29, 2025, ‘Surgical Pathology Report” documents that Dr. Piehler had in fact removed Ms. Hickman’s entire appendix.
“Sometime following the August 2025 procedure, Ms. Hickman was finally informed by members of CAMC’s Risk Management Department of Dr. Radow’s error in January 2025.”
Hickman says the negligent acts by CAMC and its employees deviated from the standard of care and caused her severe personal injuries, need for additional highly invasive surgeries, physical deterioration, pain, suffering, severe emotional distress and need for continuing care.
She accuses CAMC of negligence and violation of the West Virginia Medical Professional Liability Act.
Hickman seeks compensatory damages, general damages, special damages, punitive damages and economic damages for lost wages, lost earning capacity, lost benefits, lost household services, past and future medical expenses. She also seeks non-economic damages for pain and suffering, sorrow, loss of enjoyment of life, mental anguish and severe emotional distress.
She also seeks court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
Hickman is being represented by diTrapano and Timothy D. Houston of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Dave Hardy.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 25-C-1545
