Football Player Who Lost Leg Awarded $4.5 Million

A former pro football player whose leg had to be amputated after an unsuccessful attempt to install an artificial knee won a $4.5-million verdict Friday in a malpractice suit against two doctors at the UCLA Medical Center and the manufacturer of the knee.

A Superior Court jury in Santa Monica found Dennis Brewster’s former doctors 25% liable and Howmedica Inc. of New Jersey, a leading manufacturer of prosthetic devices, 75% liable for Brewster’s medical bills, pain and suffering and lost wages.

Brewster played for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams in the 1960s before sustaining a career-ending knee injury. During a 1986 operation at the medical center, surgeons Eric Johnson and Michael Tooke determined that a Howmedica knee supposedly designed to fit the 350-pound man would not fit. A substitute knee was implanted after a delay of several hours, which Brewster’s lawyers said allowed infection to set in. Brewster underwent dozens of operations over 3 1/2 years before the leg was amputated this year.