On June 20, 2012, plaintiffs’ decedent Julia Garcia, 71, underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy to remove an ovarian cyst. The procedure was performed by Dr. Kim Lam, an OB/GYN at St. Helena Women’s Center. Garcia was initially diagnosed with a right ovarian cyst during a pelvic ultrasound in 2009. As a result, she underwent interval studies over the next few years without appreciable change in size or contour. In April 2012, Garcia presented to Lam with complaints of pelvic pain on her left side. Garcia wanted to have the right-sided ovarian cyst removed, and Lam subsequently imaged the ovarian cyst and determined that it had not changed appreciably in size. However, due to Garcia’s complaints of pelvic pain, Lam agreed to perform a diagnostic laparoscopy and remove the ovarian cyst. Lam ultimately performed the laparoscopy at St. Helena Hospital on June 20, 2012. The procedure was uneventful and without complications. Garcia was discharged home the same day, but then Lam the next day with complaints of significant abdominal pain and urinary incontinence. Garcia denied having any fever, chills or vomiting, so Lam instructed Garcia to take her prescribed pain medications. Lam further explained that if this did not work, she could readmit Garcia to the hospital for intravenous pain control. Garcia was ultimately readmitted to the hospital on June 22, 2012, and she was found to have symptoms consistent with acute abdominal and septic shock. A CT scan confirmed an apparent contamination of the abdominal cavity from a bowel perforation. As a result, Garcia was taken back to surgery that same day. Lam and a general surgeon performed a surgical exploration and confirmed there was contamination of the abdominal cavity from a perforation in the small bowel, apparently unrecognized from the prior laparoscopy. Despite further care, Garcia died in the hospital on July 23, 2012. Garcia’s adult daughter and son, Angelica Hernandez and Tony Flores, sued Lam, St. Helena Women’s Center, and St. Helena Hospital. Hernandez and Flores alleged that the defendants were negligent in performing the surgery and that their negligence constituted medical malpractice. St. Helena Hospital was ultimately dismissed from the case. The plaintiffs’ OB/GYN expert opined that the right-sided ovarian cyst had nothing to do with Garcia’s left-sided pelvic pain and that it was below the standard of care for Lam to offer surgery to Garcia at all. The expert also opined that Garcia’s pelvic pain was solely attributable to a flare-up of her pre-existing diverticular disease. The defense’s OB/GYN expert testified that Lam was well within the standard of care by offering the diagnostic laparoscopy to Garcia. He explained that it was appropriate to offer diagnostic pelvic surgery to a post-menopausal female patient with an ovarian cyst, pelvic pain, or both. Both experts agreed that Lam’s performance of the diagnostic laparoscopy was technically appropriate and that an inadvertent injury to the bowel in the course of the procedure did not constitute a breach in the standard of care., Garcia complained of significant abdominal pain and urinary incontinence following the diagnostic laparoscopy. She was subsequently readmitted to the hospital and underwent a surgical exploration, which confirmed a contamination of the abdominal cavity from a perforation in the small bowel. However, Garcia’s condition progressed into septic shock, renal failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome. She ultimately died in the hospital on July 23, 2012. Garcia’s adult daughter, Angelica Hernandez, 40, a married mother of three children and an e-commerce manager at Quintessa Winery, claimed that she was closer to her mother than Garcia’s adult son, Tony Flores, 42, who worked in shipping and receiving for Wine Country Kitchens. However, both children sought recovery of wrongful death damages for the loss of their mother.