Airman Loses Legs After Gall Bladder Surgery

July 22, 2009— -- A 20-year-old airman was in serious condition today at the University of California Davis Medical Center after losing both legs in what family members said was a botched surgery to remove his gall bladder.

The complications that forced doctors to amputate Airman 1st Class Colton Read's legs occurred after surgeons at Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base punctured Read's aorta, according to family members.

Instead of immediately calling in a vascular surgeon to repair the damage to the artery that carried blood from the heart, doctors at the air base waited 8 1/2 hours before taking him to the UC Davis hospital.

By the time Read got there, his wife Jessica said, doctors told her, "Things don't look good. He might not survive."

The airman's mother said the mistake by the resident who performed the surgery is forgiveable, but she cannot understand why he was not gotten help sooner.

"I'm not questioning the resident's education that did this," Shelley Read-Miller told ABC News affiliate KXTV in Sacramento, Calif. "I won't question anybody, but the time -- that's the only area that seems unbearable."

Jessica Read told KXTV that when she noticed during the surgery that her husband's feet were turning blue and asked doctors about it, they said they were working on him and told her to go out to the waiting room.

"It should never have happened," Read's grandfather Bill Read told ABC News. "I mean, the first mistake is cutting the aorta, but the biggest mistake is not getting him transported to where there is a vascular surgeon."

Both the University of California Davis Medical Center and Travis Air Force Base declined to give any more specific details on the situation.

Read, who was assigned to the 9th Intelligence Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, is expected to remain at UC Davis Medical Center for seven to eight weeks.

"Airman First Class Colton Read is part of the Air Force family, one of our own, and we will do everything in our power to ensure he and his family receive all the support they need, now and down the road as he recovers," AF ISR Agency commander Maj. Gen. Brad Heithold, said in a written statement to ABC News.