HPMB Client Exonerated After Trial in Staten Island

A Staten Island jury has exonerated the estate of a pediatrician who was sued for malpractice by a man stricken with polio after changing his daughter’s diaper 30 years ago. The jury simultaneously awarded $22.5 million against the maker of the oral vaccine that passed through her stool.

The jury determined that the Orimune vaccine plaintiff’s daughter received was unreasonably dangerous and that the drug maker failed to warn doctors of the vaccine’s potential risks. The jury found that HPM&B’s client, the pediatrician who administered the vaccine, did not depart from accepted medical practice in failing to advise the infant’s parents of the risk of “contact polio.”

The physician’s estate was represented at trial by HPM&B senior partner Rosary A. Morelli.