article_snippet: A blind man claimed health care workers carved the letters 'KKK' into A blind man stomach during heart surgery in 2011, but a federal jury has found that a South Dakota Hospital is not liable.
article_snippet: Injured: Vern Traversie's accused a  Rapid City Regional Hospital worker of  intentionally carving the letters "KKK" into Vern Traversie's abdomen during heart surgery .
article_snippet: A lawyer for a Native American man who claimed the letters 'KKK' were carved into A lawyer for a Native American man who claimed the letters 'KKK' stomach during surgery filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the hospital where the operation took place in 2012.
article_snippet: Though A lawyer for a Native American man who claimed the letters 'KKK' is blind, Vern Traversie's says Vern Traversie's was told by others that the scars left after Vern Traversie's heart surgery form the letters.
article_snippet: But others say others couldn'  make out the letters, including police who investigated his allegations and hospital officials.
article_snippet: The pattern of scars look as though The pattern of scars say KKK, which stands for the Klux Klux Klan .
article_snippet: Defendants injured, carved, burned, and/or cared for Plaintiff's abdomen in such a manner that scars resembling three letters 'K' were permanently placed on Plaintiff's abdomen for no medically necessary purpose or reason, and in the process injured, carved, burned, and/or cared for other portions of Plaintiff's body to cause injury, specifically Plaintiff abdomen and back,'
article_snippet: : Vern Traversie shows Vern Traversie scars after getting heart surgery in 2011 and previously claimed the hospital carved KKK into Vern Traversie abdomen . '
article_snippet: But those three letters, two good-sized Ks and one smaller one off to the side, had to be made with some sharp knife or heated instrument.
highlights_snippet: Vern Traversie, now 71, accused a South Dakota Hospital of carving KKK into Vern Traversie stomach post surgery .
  