Case Discontinuance

HPM&B recently obtained a voluntary discontinuance for an interventional cardiology client affiliated with a major teaching institution in New York City. Plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to timely treat cardiac tamponade resulting in cardiac arrest and death. The defendant established at his deposition that he was not present in the hospital when the co-defendant cardiologist made the diagnosis of a moderate pericardial effusion. When the co-defendant spoke to him on the phone, he advised our client that the patient was hemodynamically stable and needed a pericardiocentesis by the end of the day. Notably, the co-defendant did not place the order for the pericardiocentesis to be done stat. When our client arrived at the Hospital later that afternoon to perform the procedure, while he was scrubbing in, a code blue was called. The defendant rushed to the bedside and performed an emergency pericardiocentesis, which drained the pericardial fluid. However, the patient could not be successfully resuscitated. The defense further established that the autopsy report reflected that the endotracheal tube was placed into the esophagus, not the airway, and that our client had no role in placing the endotracheal tube during the code. In light of the foregoing, plaintiff’s counsel voluntarily discontinued the case against our client.