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Senior Trial Partner Laurie A. Annunziato, Senior Associate Stephen C. Lanzone, and Associate Clifford S. Brantley successfully obtained Summary Judgment in a case involving allegations of malpractice in the performance of an Ivor Lewis esophagectomy by MCB’s client physicians on December 1, 2016, and the plaintiff’s subsequent admission to the SICU for recurrent respiratory distress. The plaintiff alleged that the surgery and intraoperative positioning caused cervical hyperextension, left radial nerve palsy, and a right foot drop from peroneal nerve compression.
Following extensive discovery, MCB moved for Summary Judgment, supported by expert affirmations in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Anesthesia, and Critical Care Medicine, all of whom attested to the “textbook” performance of the procedure and appropriate SICU care of the plaintiff’s respiratory distress, a known complication to the performance of the procedure.
In opposition, plaintiffs’ counsel raised entirely new claims, alleging for the first time that cervical hyperextensions stemmed from SICU trial extubations that worsened preexisting cervical spine pathology, and that peroneal nerve injury resulted from the plaintiff’s restrained positioning in the SICU. These claims were supported only by an Affirmation from the plaintiff’s treating physical medicine and rehabilitation physician.
The Court granted Summary Judgment, agreeing that plaintiff’s expert opinions were conclusory and speculative, and also lacked the foundation to opine on standards of care applicable to pulmonologists and anesthesiologists in a surgical ICU.