Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville closed in June 2025. Hospital officials across Maine say the state's lag in reimbursing them for services provided to residents on MaineCare, and policy changes on the horizon, could force more closures. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)

A jury awarded a Skowhegan woman and her husband $17 million last week after a Northern Light Health surgeon removed her bladder instead of an ovarian cyst.

Emily Mitchell filed the lawsuit in Kennebec County Superior Court last year. She alleged that a surgeon at Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville mistakenly removed her healthy bladder during a procedure to remove a benign ovarian cyst in 2023.

The lawsuit did not name the doctor, but rather was filed against Inland Hospital and its parent, Northern Light Health, a statewide health system that closed the Waterville hospital last year. The health system contested the lawsuit’s claims of liability and causation during a two-week medical malpractice trial this month.

A jury ruled unanimously in Mitchell’s favor. She was awarded close to $16 million in total: close to $2 million for past and future medical expenses, $6 million for pain and suffering and $8 million for permanent injury. Her husband, Joshua, received more than $1 million for the loss of her care and companionship.

The award is the largest in Kennebec County history.

Susan Faunce, attorney, said the verdict is an important step toward justice for the Mitchells.

“Although it doesn’t erase the pain and the loss that they’ve endured or that they continue to endure,” Faunce said, “the verdict recognizes the truth of what they’ve gone through and provides long overdue accountability.“

The doctor, who was not named in the lawsuit, is no longer employed at Northern Light Health.

Emily and Joshua Mitchell, of Skowhegan, stand with attorneys last week after a Kennebec County Superior Court jury awarded the couple $17 million in a medical malpractice verdict against Northern Light Health. From left are attorney Travis Brennan, attorney Susan Faunce, and Emily and Joshua Mitchell. (Courtesy of Berman & Simmons law firm).

According to the lawsuit, a doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology who was employed at Inland Hospital evaluated Mitchell’s benign ovarian cyst before performing laparoscopic surgery to remove it on March 1, 2023. The doctor collected the material she had removed to send to pathology.

After the surgery, Mitchell said she experienced pain and difficulty urinating. She was transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where surgeons found there was insufficient bladder material tissue remaining to reconstruct or repair the organ.

Pathology confirmed the material removed during the procedure consisted of full-thickness bladder tissue, and no ovarian tissue.

Mitchell dealt with urinary tract infections, kidney infections, medical procedures and complications for the eight months that followed. She underwent reconstructive surgery in Massachusetts to create a neobladder from a portion of her small intestine.

Now, at 43, she still requires self-catheterization multiple times a day.

Suzanne Spruce, Northern Light Health’s senior vice president, said the health system respects the jury’s verdict.

“Every patient who comes to our organization deserves safe, compassionate, and high-quality care,” Spruce said. “When outcomes fall short of those expectations, we take them very seriously. We are committed to continuously evaluating our care, our systems, and our processes to identify opportunities to improve safety and the care provided to our patients.”