Billy Boone was a home builder. He went to his ear-nose-throat surgeon for a growth behind his ear. The surgeon Dr. Goldberg cleaned out a benign growth from his mastoid cavity, called a cholesteatoma. Mr. Boone had had the same procedure 17 years previously, which had left a small hole in the base of his skull, but no injury. In the second surgery, Dr. Goldberg stuck an instrument into the base of his brain’s temporal lobe. The operative report was silent about this. The only evidence was a CT scan two days post-op, done after Mr. Boone complained of trouble reading the newspaper and retrieving names of close friends. The CT scan showed a pencil diameter tract of air going from the base of the skull into the brain parenchyma, surrounded by a pool of blood.

The defense strategy was to deny and defend. Dr. Goldberg’s lawyers hired a radiologist who claimed the CT scan was distorted by “keystoning” effect. They couldn’t really say what had happened, but it had nothing to do with the surgery.

We showed images to the jury proving that the defense radiologist was wrong and Mr. Boone really did have a big hole in the base of his brain that could only have gotten there by Dr. Goldberg’s surgery. 

Here are a few of the images we showed them.