CROWN POINT | A Lake Circuit Court jury found a Munster doctor guilty of malpractice Friday but declined to award any damages beyond the patient's medical bills.

Dr. Mary Vanko, an obstetrician-gynecologist, was found to have committed malpractice in 1998 during a hysterectomy on a Lansing woman that caused kidney complications and required corrective surgery, attorneys in the case reported.

"We're not happy with the award, but we're happy that everyone who has heard the situation has concluded Mary Vanko committed malpractice," said Michael Massucci, attorney for Cathy and George Becker, of Lansing.

The jury awarded the Beckers $75,000, which was about equivalent to the medical bills for the procedure and the corrective measures.

Vanko's attorney, David Beach, said the complication Cathy Becker experienced after the operation happens at least 5,000 times a year in the United States -- in up to 1 percent of all hysterectomies, according to expert testimony in the trial.

During the operation, Vanko put a suture through Cathy Becker's ureter, a bodily canal that connects the kidney to the bladder.

Beach said that at the location of the injury, the ureter cannot be seen or felt. Massucci said Vanko failed to take steps before the surgery to locate Cathy Becker's ureter.

An independent panel of three doctors who reviewed the case prior to the lawsuit unanimously concluded that, based on available records, Vanko committed malpractice.