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Senior Trial Partner Jeff Lawton successfully obtained a defense verdict in Monroe County Supreme Court in a case involving a 65-year-old man who presented with acute pain in his left foot and was diagnosed with a foot drop. MCB’s neurosurgeon clients reviewed prior imaging and performed a physical examination, concluding that the foot drop was caused by nerve compression at L5-S1. Surgery was recommended within two days.
The following day, the patient developed a cold foot with discoloration. The plaintiff alleged that the MCB’s client neurosurgeon defendants failed to perform a vascular examination, including assessing pulses, which allegedly resulted in a 36-hour delay in performing an embolectomy and ultimately required fasciotomies.
At trial, MCB presented expert testimony from both vascular and neurosurgical specialists, who opined that the initial diagnosis was appropriate based on the patient’s presentation and that a vascular injury only became apparent the following day when the patient’s symptoms changed. The defense further argued that the need for a fasciotomy developed early in the course of the condition and that the alleged delay did not cause harm.
The jury returned a defense verdict in favor of the neurosurgeon defendants.