BOWLING GREEN, Ky. ― It was supposed to be a routine procedure ― an elective hernia surgery. And Alice Duff was scheduled to be released from the hospital the next day.

But something went terribly wrong that day in 2013. A surgeon employed by Graves Gilbert Clinic improperly stitched her bowel, eventually causing it to leak toxins into her bloodstream, poisoning her body and building up the pressure in her eyes so high it detached her retinas, said her lawyer, Chad Gardner.