The University of California Board of Regents has paid $11.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a Perris electrician who alleged he went to UCI Health in Orange for an outpatient knee surgery but had to have his leg amputated because of the hospital’s recklessness and misrepresentations.

The settlement is far beyond the $470,000 state cap on nonfatal medical malpractice. However, the hospital, formerly known as UCI Medical Center, was accused of a type of negligence that has no cap, said an attorney for the plaintiff, Wayne Wolff, 59.

“The result in this case speaks to the seriousness of the failings by defendants, and the consequences they caused,” said attorney Jeoffrey Robinson, representing Wolff and his wife, Lisa. The suit accused the hospital of dependent adult abuse and negligence.

Wolff was scheduled to undergo a left knee arthroscopic meniscus repair and high tibial osteotomy by the hospital’s head of sports medicine and UC Irvine team doctor Dean Wang.

But during surgery, the doctor mistakenly severed and cauterized what he said was a vein, but turned out to be a main artery, according to the lawsuit, filed in February 2025. Despite Wolff’s intense pain and the lack of a pulse in his left foot, the problem went undiscovered for days by hospital staff, until it was too late to save the leg, the suit alleged.

“While we are relieved that this litigation nightmare is over, there is no amount of money that can undo what has been done,” Wayne Wolff said. “We hope both the hospital and Dr. Wang are forced to take drastic steps to ensure this never happens to anyone else.”

Wolff said he could no longer do the job he had held for 30 years, boring tunnels for subways and sewers throughout the United States and Canada. It’s just too dangerous now to go down those shafts, where he supervised the construction of the boring equipment.

In 2024, Wolff was looking for a doctor to operate on his left meniscus, damaged by the wear and tear of an active life. A co-worker recommended Wang and UCI Medical Center, rated among the best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, according to the hospital’s website.

Wolff picked UCI because it was “the big shop in town.”

According to his suit, Wolff checked in on April 3, 2024, for the surgery to repair his knee. He was supposed to check out the same day.

But Wang mistakenly cut what he said was a blood vessel. It took 35 minutes to control the bleeding and cauterize the wound, the suit said. When the surgery was complete, Wang allegedly told Lisa Wolff that he had “nicked a vein” and understated the amount of blood Wayne had lost, according to the suit.

What Wang had cut was the popliteal artery, which supplies blood to the left lower extremity.

Wayne Wolff was admitted to the post-anesthesia care unit to recover, unaware of the extent of the damage to his leg. Even as his pain intensified and his leg grew worse without adequate blood flow, he was not immediately relocated to an intensive care unit, but was instead moved for several days between post-anesthesia units, despite protestations from his wife, a veteran emergency room nurse, the suit said.

Meanwhile, Wang left for a two-day trip to Florida to shoot a promotional video for a medical device manufacturer, turning Wolff’s care over to resident doctors who did not spot that his leg was, in essence, dying, according an amended complaint.

Worried by her husband’s worsening condition, Lisa repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for an ultrasound.

Finally, the true nature of Wolff’s injury was discovered by a vascular surgeon, but, by that time, amputation was necessary, the suit said.

With a trial pending, Wolff’s legal team discovered that UCI Health had destroyed video footage of the initial surgery as well as internal messages between Wang and the staff concerning Wolff’s condition, according to a motion for sanctions against the regents board.

Court records show the items were erased as part of the hospital’s standard purging schedule.

Officials at UCI Health did not respond to a request for comment.