TAMPA- The 1996 back surgery was supposed to replace a damaged disk, but a healthy one was removed instead.

      A Hillsborough County jury Friday awarded $3.3 million to a Wesley Chapel man who suffered long-term injuries from a botched operation.

      The man's wife was awarded another $500,000 in compensation for her losses.

      The jurors found that Tampa neurosurgeon William O. DeWeese was 90 percent to blame for Sean E. O'Reilly's injuries. That means DeWeese is liable for more than $3.4 million of the total award.

      Jurors assigned the remaining blame to orthopedic surgeon John Shim, said the O'Reilly's attorney, Steve Yerrid of Tampa. Shim, however, already had reached a confidential settlement with the O'Reillys and won't have to pay any of the jury awarded, Yerrid said.

      O'Reilly who was a long time lineman with Tampa Electric Co., was supposed to have surgery for a herniated disk that had been causing him pain and numbness. The damage disk was to be replaced by bone in his hip.

      "The surgery was designed to put him right back to work," said Yerrid.

      But when the operation was performed in 1996 at University Community Hospital, a healthy disk was removed instead, Yerrid said. O'Reilly had to have a second surgery four months later at another hospital to correct the problems.

      "Now he's got a metal plate with screws in his backbone," Yerrid said, adding O'Reilly's condition likely will worsen over time.

      O'Reilly, 42, hasn't worked since his first surgery.

      "He can never return to what he used to do," Yerrid said.

      O'Reilly and his wife, Lona, sued for medical malpractice in 1998. The Pasco County couple's lawsuit sought more than $5 million and also named University Community as a defendant. The hospital reached a confidential settlement with the O'Reillys before the trial, Yerrid said.

      Yerrid said his clients, who have three children, were "pleased with the verdict."

      Neither DeWeese nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

      Defense lawyers argued that O'Reilly had a congenital disk problem that resulted in his disks being miscounted, Yerrid said.

      But DeWeese knew of O'Reilly's congenital problem before the surgery, said Yerrid.