Lloyd Barbee went to The Queen's Medical Center in 2001 for the removal of his left kidney, which had a tumor, a surgery that his family's lawyer says is 96 percent successful.

But Barbee began to bleed internally and lost about 40 percent to 60 percent of his blood, which led to brain damage and the failure of his kidney, liver and other organs, said Andre Wooten, the family's lawyer.

Barbee, 76, died 17 months later as a result of the complications, Wooten said.

This week, a Circuit Court jury awarded Barbee's two sons and a daughter $1,095,000 in their malpractice case against the medical center and the doctor, William Yarbrough.

Queen's and the doctor contended they weren't at fault, but Wooten said the jury found Queen's 73 percent liable and Yarbrough 27 percent liable for allowing Barbee to bleed internally. Wooten said the doctor did not leave orders asking for the appropriate monitoring to check on post-surgery internal bleeding and Barbee was not adequately monitored at the hospital.

Barbee, a prominent civil rights lawyer from Milwaukee, and a former member of the Wisconsin legislature, was the father of Honolulu attorneys Daphne Barbee and Rustam Barbee.

Wooten filed the suit on behalf of the two and another son, Finn Barbee.

After a three-week trial and a total of about two days of deliberations, the jury awarded each of the three $365,000.

Wooten said his clients are happy with the trial's outcome.

"It vindicates their position that Queen's was negligent, that they could have done things they did not do, and their care fell below the standard of care," Wooten said. "The jury ruled that they wanted a better standard of care than what was delivered to the father."

The father returned to Milwaukee after he was transferred from Queen's in November 2002 to a Milwaukee hospital where he died the following month, Wooten said.

Lawyers for Queen's and the doctor did not return phone calls for comment.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.