This is a case where a financially successful orthopedic surgeon stopped practicingmedicine and borrowed money to maintain his family's lifestyle during costly divorceproceedings that plodded on for more than four years. The marital estate withered to ashadow of its one-time worth before the trial judge could divide marital assets. When itcame time to divide the estate, the judge blamed the doctor for all of the losses incurredduring the eternity taken to dissolve this marriage. She found that he had squandered morethan $2.235 million. A host of dissipation findings treated the doctor to a share of the maritalestate that had less value than the marital debt that he was ordered to assume. His erstwhilespouse parted the marriage with approximately $1.6 million in unencumbered marital assets.

We are asked to undo the disparity in the distribution of the marital estate, a requestthat turns upon whether the trial judge abused her discretion in reaching the various findingsthat Dr. Miller had frittered away most of the estate on things that benefited him.

We do not overturn a determination that a spouse has dissipated assets, and thereforedeserves to be charged with losses that occur on the road to a marriage's end, unless the trialjudge's findings exceed the bounds of reason and ignore principles of law designed to ensurefair and just results. In re Marriage of Partyka, 158 Ill. App. 3d 545, 550, 511 N.E.2d 676,680 (1987).

For the reasons that follow, we think that many of the dissipation findings made inthis case transcend reason and require the reevaluation of the asset-and-liability distributionbetween the parties. We reverse and remand to start anew in arriving at a fair division of themarital estate. Because the division of marital assets and liabilities is an integral part of thedecision-making on an award of maintenance, we also vacate the permanent maintenanceaward entered in this case.

Margaret Lynn Miller and Maurice Miller wed on January 21, 1981. The marriagewas blessed with three boys: Jonathon, Clifford, and Stuart. Jonathon currently attendsPurdue University. The other two sons live with their father, who was awarded custody. They will soon enter college, an expense their father must bear, along with the educationalexpenses of Jonathon.

Margaret used to work as a registered nurse. She quit working shortly after thewedding to become a homemaker. The divorce proceedings depressed Margaret, and sheexacerbated her problems with alcohol consumption. She was hospitalized for alcohol-induced Tylenol toxicity and hepatic failure during the divorce's course. She incurred heftymedical and insurance expenses that had to be paid during the pendency of the divorceproceedings. By the divorce's conclusion, Margaret had maintained two years of sobrietythrough vigilant participation in Alcoholics Anonymous. She remains under the treatmentof numerous physicians, including a psychiatrist who testified on her behalf. He gave hisdiagnosis that she suffers from major depressive disorder, panic attacks, alcohol dependence,and opiate medication abuse. He further testified that she will never return to nursing absentgreat improvement. However, he did not rule out that possibility.

Maurice grew a successful medical practice during the marriage. As theseproceedings loomed, he earned medical fees of almost $600,000 annually. He was activelyengaged in that practice, paying four full-time employees, when the petition for thedissolution of the marriage was filed on October 27, 1997. The action proceeded at anincredibly slow pace. The parties had already endured 1