Summary Judgment Victory

HPM&B  won summary judgment dismissal for a  pediatrician in a high-exposure  brain damaged baby  case venued in  Supreme Court,  Richmond County.    Plaintiff claimed  that  the defendants failed to timely diagnose  and treat  cytomegalovirus (CMV)  in the  infant-plaintiff resulting in profound neurological deficits. HPM&B  overcame plaintiff’s opposition, which was supported by three expert affirmations including a pediatric neurologist, neuroradiologist, and neonatologist. HPM&B  successfully argued that the defendant pediatrician appropriately referred the infant to a pediatric neurologist at the very first  pediatric  office visit given the infant’s documented diagnoses of intrauterine growth restriction, small for gestational age status,  jaundice,  and microcephaly, and that the pediatrician appropriately deferred to and relied on the pediatric neurologist’s evaluation of the infant’s condition and recommendation for follow-up testing  including brain imaging. With regard to causation, HPM&B successfully argued that based on  the infant’s initial brain MRI, the infant was infected with CMV early in the pregnancy resulting in severe, irreversible brain damage prior to birth.  HPM&B also established that  the infant was diagnosed with a debilitating genetic disorder, which, in combination with CMV, caused the brain damage, developmental delays, microcephaly, and other neurologic deficits. The Court  found  that plaintiff’s opposition  was speculative and  failed to rebut the  key aspects of the  defendant pediatrician’s  arguments.  Accordingly, the motion was granted in its entirety.