Family files lawsuit against doctor who performed Kamloops man’s final surgery

Sep 18, 2018 | 4:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — The family of a 51-year-old Kamloops man who died in January last year are suing the doctor who performed his surgery.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Vancouver earlier this month, Stephen Burnstad was pronounced dead approximately 90 minutes after a surgery that was intended to treat his gastric carcinoid tumour.

The lawsuit alleges Dr. Reuben James Bond, a thoracic surgeon in Surrey, failed or refused to recognize the cause of Burnstad’s declining condition following the surgery. 

“It’s just an unfortunate tragedy,” said the lawyer representing the Burnstads, J. Scott Stanley. “Anything that happens that doesn’t need to happen and is so easily prevented is always a tragedy.” 

Burnstad was diagnosed with gastric carcinoid around two years ago, and Stanley says he was referred to Dr. Bond by a family doctor. 

According to the lawsuit, Burnstad went into his final surgery at Surrey Memorial Hospital on Jan. 9, 2017. 

“Basically they were going to just remove the cancerous portions of his stomach, and thereafter it was expected to be a very livable disease,” Stanley said. 

But Burnstad did not survive. 

“All signs indicated that there was a bleed going on internally,” Stanley said, “a bleed probably caused by a surgical error. These are not uncommon, they’re not even negligent. They happen all the time, but they’re just something that needs to be addressed while the patient is still on the operating table, and for reasons that we believe we know, and which we will unfortunately never understand, that wasn’t attended to, and Mr. Burnstad needlessly died on the operating table.”

Stanley says this is a situation in which he believes the coroner should have been involved, but the lawsuit claims Bond misinformed the coroner about the cause of death in an attempt to prevent that investigation. 

Burnstad’s wife, Norma, and two children are suing for the loss of Stephen and the finances that he would have supplied the family. 

“In a lawsuit like this, what you’re asking for is just sort of the economic advantages that would have accrued to the family had their husband and father not died, so when he dies they lose access to his income, they lose access to all the other good things he does around the home, housework, helping kids with homework and stuff like that,” Stanley said. 

“The lawsuit is meant to replace those things, and of course you can never truly replace the loss of a loved one.”

Stanley says Bond has secured counsel, but it will likely be a long time before the case heads to trial. 

Attempts to get in contact with Dr. Bond were unsuccessful. 

None of the allegations have been proven in court.