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 ...

Elizabeth Cornacchio obtained a defense verdict in Westchester County on September 24, 2008 on behalf of  an obstetrician/gynecologist who performed a laparoscopic procedure to evaluate plaintiff’s complaints of pelvic pain.  During the procedure bleeding was encountered which required conversion to a “mini-laparotomy.”  Subsequently the patient has a small bowel evisceration requiring a second procedure to ...

On September 22, 2008, Darshan I. Patel received a defense verdict on behalf of a medical/neurosurgical group following a trial in the Supreme Court, Richmond County. Plaintiff, a former New York City Sanitation Department Worker, alleged defendants performed a spinal decompressive laminectomy at left L5-S1 despite radiological studies indicating a predominately right sided disc herniation. ...

Interpreting the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., a Westchester County judge has dismissed claims sounding in  negligence and product liability following plaintiffs’ decedent’s death from injuries he sustained while undergoing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (“MRI”) test.  In Colombini v. Westchester County Health Care Corporation, HPM&B’s client was sued under theories of ...

The Supreme Court, New York County (Schlesinger, J.) has set aside a $9.25 million verdict and dismissed a complaint against an HPM&B client, a neurosurgeon who had been found 50% liable.  Plaintiff’s decedent, an heiress to the Mellon fortune, sustained catastrophic neurological injuries when she was struck by a moving truck.  It was alleged that ...

New York State Mental Hygiene Law section 9.60, also known as Kendra’s Law, allows New York courts to order mandatory assisted outpatient treatment for psychiatric patients. Courts may order a non-hospitalized psychiatric patient to take specific medications, undergo routine urine and blood testing, remain in specified residential living arrangements, and attend weekly counseling. A patient ...

Vincent Gallo successfully obtained summary judgment dismissal on behalf of a New York County pediatrician in a case in which plaintiffs alleged that HPM&B’s client failed to diagnose a congenital hip dislocation. Plaintiffs had alleged that the failure to diagnose the hip dislocation occurred during a routine pediatric visit and the infant’s family complained about ...

Connecticut General Statutes Section 52-190a requires that a plaintiff attach to his complaint a good faith certificate from his attorney and a letter from a similar health care provider stating a belief that there is evidence of medical negligence.  Failure to comply makes the complaint subject to a motion to dismiss. Superior Court decisions interpreting ...

Bruce F. Gilpatrick recently obtained a defense verdict in a wrongful death case brought by the estate of a 68-year-old business executive against a Board Certified Urologist in Stamford, Connecticut. Plaintiff claimed that there was an approximate one year delay in the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer resulting in decedent’s death.  After a bench ...

Elizabeth Cornacchio recently obtained a defense verdict in a birth injury case tried in Bronx County Supreme Court against a hospital.  Plaintiff claimed that the labor and delivery of a 23-year-old, first-time pregnant woman, was mismanaged.  The plaintiff-mother presented to the defendant institution with complaints of abdominal pain and bleeding at 25 weeks 6 days ...