Michael Sullivan Receives a Defense Verdict in Suffolk County

Michael Sullivan obtained a defense verdict in a Supreme Court, Suffolk County medical malpractice case on September 26, 2018. 

Plaintiff was a 48-year-old attorney who was struck by a motor vehicle while riding a bicycle and suffered comminuted factures of his distal left tibia and fibula.  The defendant orthopedic surgeon repaired the injury the following day with an intramedullary nail placed across the tibial fracture site.  The patient went onto experience a delayed union of the fractures and had two further surgeries by another surgeon before the fractures healed.  He then had three more surgeries after the fractures healed to remove hardware and corrected a malalignment of the healed bones.  Plaintiff claimed that the original injury should have been treated with a plating system rather than an intramedullary nail, and the delayed healing requiring five further surgeries resulted from the defendant surgeon’s improper surgical technique.

Through the testimony of his own client and expert, and the cross-examination of plaintiff’s expert, Mr. Sullivan was able to establish that the defendant’s use of an intramedullary nail was an appropriate choice based upon the location of the tibial fracture, and that plaintiff’s delayed healing was not caused by the defendant’s surgical technique. 

After five days of testimony before the Honorable David T. Reilly, the jury rendered a unanimous defense verdict after 30 minutes of deliberations.