Tomei

Plaintiff appeals from the part of a judgment entered against her upon a jury verdict on her complaint to recover damages for medical malpractice. Defendant appeals from the part of the judgment entered upon the verdict against him on his cross-complaint to recover *321 the value of his professional services and reimbursement for payments of other medical expenses made by him on plaintiff ’s behalf.

Defendant performed a hysterectomy on plaintiff. During the operation he accidentally sutured her right ureter in two places. The accident was not discovered until four days later. A urologist attempted corrective surgery, which failed, and thereafter it became necessary to remove plaintiff’s right kidney.

At the trial defendant admitted that he had unintentionally sutured plaintiff’s ureter. He presented evidence, however, that the misplacing of the sutures and the failure to discover it during the operation were an unavoidable accident and not the result of negligence on his part. Both sides introduced expert testimony on the questions whether defendant should have identified the ureters by sight or touch to avoid them during the operation and whether before closing the wound he…