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Dr. Dominic A. Brandy was SUED for malpractice and the jury awarded $400,000+ in this case. Here are news articles about the case:
community.seattletimes.nwsource.cmo/archive/?date=19960915&slug=2349352 [replace “cmo” with “com” to access link]
deseretnews.cmo/article/514377/HAIR-DOCTOR-HAS-A-BRUSH-WITH-THE-LAW. [replace “cmo” with “com” to access link and add html to end]
From Desertnews website:
HAIR DOCTOR HAS A BRUSH WITH THE LAW
By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Published: Friday, Sept. 20 1996 12:00 a.m. MDT
Summary
A jury has awarded $400,000 to a man who said a series of botched hair restoration treatments drove him to attempt suicide.
Michael Potkul, 33, said he was left disfigured and despondent after five surgical procedures by Dr. Dominic Brandy, a Pittsburgh hair-restoration specialist.
A jury has awarded $400,000 to a man who said a series of botched hair restoration treatments drove him to attempt suicide.
Michael Potkul, 33, said he was left disfigured and despondent after five surgical procedures by Dr. Dominic Brandy, a Pittsburgh hair-restoration specialist.After a five-day trial before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Gene Strassburger, the jury concluded Wednesday that Brandy was negligent and failed to deliver the results he had promised to Pot-kul.
With other court charges, the award is likely to exceed $500,000, said Jon Perry, Potkul's attorney.
""We're very pleased,"" he said. ""We were fortunate to have a bright judge and a bright, compassionate jury.""
Potkul, of Uniontown, wore a hairpiece during the trial and was clearly uneasy about removing it to show jurors his scarred scalp.
Brandy and his attorney, Korry Greene, said they were disappointed but had not decided whether to appeal. Brandy said it was the first court judgment against him in a 16-year career that included 10,000 cases.
Brandy faces other litigation. He is a defendant in five other medical malpractice cases pending in Common Pleas Court.
Potkul testified that he became obsessed about hair loss that began when he was 27. He tried Rogaine, hair plugs and a hairpiece before turning to Brandy after seeing him on a TV talk show.
In March 1992, after five surgeries that cost more than $15,000 and left him scarred, he drove to Maryland and shot himself in the chest with a .357-caliber Magnum pistol.
He was hospitalized for three weeks and had continued psychiatric care.
Juror Alan Forester said the panel had little difficulty in concluding that Brandy was negligent.
""(Potkul) was promised something - a full head of hair - and it didn't happen,"" Forester said.
Forester said the jury's principal difficulty in its four hours of deliberations was arriving at a damage figure. He said the panel decided to award slightly more than the $350,000 in past and future medical expenses Potkul had claimed.
Forester said jurors believed that Potkul was partly to blame for his woes, saying he did not educate himself adequately about the procedures.
In its verdict, the jury attributed 70 percent of the negligence to Brandy and 30 percent to Potkul. But the finding did not reduce the damage award because the jury also concluded that Brandy had made - and breached - a warranty to restore Potkul's hair.
""It's not over for Mike,"" Perry said about Potkul during closing arguments. ""It's never going to be over for that poor man. People are going to point at Mike. He's the guy who tried to kill himself because of his hair.""
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