The Fresno Bee reports that a local jury has awarded a total of $68 million ($55.6 million in compensatory damages and $12.4 million in punitive damages) in a medical malpractice case against a surgeon. 

According to the story, the plaintiffs accused the doctor of leaving the operating room early to attend a luncheon, leaving a physician’s assistant to close a patient’s chest after open heart surgery.  The patient suffered a large blood loss that caused him to go into a coma.