PORTLAND – A jury awarded a Naples woman $400,000 in damages Wednesday for injuries suffered during a gallbladder operation at Bridgton Hospital.

The Cumberland County Superior Court jury found that Dr. Robert Doyle mistakenly cut Lynn Smith McCoy’s bile ducts while performing laparoscopic surgery on her on Sept. 20, 1999.

The cut bile ducts were later diagnosed at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, and McCoy was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for what her lawyer, Randall Smith, referred to as “life-saving repair surgery.” The surgery included rerouting a section of her intestines, and attaching that section of intestine to her liver.

Smith said he had not recommended a damage amount to the jury, other than saying that McCoy’s medical bills were about $45,000.

“This was a well-reasoned verdict,” he said of the $400,000 damage award. “It’s a figure that appropriately reflects the gravity of the situation.”

Doyle’s office was closed Friday, and he could not be reached for comment. Smith said testimony at the trial showed that “by the doctor’s own opinion, he got confused about what structure he was looking at.”

Laparoscopic surgery uses a small video camera and a few customized instruments inserted through the skin to allow doctors to explore internal organs without having to divide skin and muscle.

Smith argued that Doyle should have switched to an alternative method, such as injecting a dye or standard surgery, when the laparoscopy limitations were evident. Instead, he said, Doyle “negligently clipped and cut (McCoy’s) common and hepatic bile ducts” and now faces the prospect of further surgery in the future.

As required by Maine law, McCoy’s claim was presented to a three-person medical screening panel on Dec. 20, 2002. The panel concluded unanimously that McCoy’s injuries were caused by the negligence of the doctor, Smith said.

“The jury recognized the physical, emotional and monetary impacts this had on (McCoy),” Smith said. “Now she can try to get on with her life.”