Verdicts

A New York court denied a motion to dismiss a medical malpractice/wrongful death claim after finding that the plaintiff's medical expert could properly rely on the deceased's husband's report of her statements following surgery to form part of the basis for his opinion as to causation. Balzola v. Giese, 114205/09, NYLJ 1202588951606, at *1 (Sup., NY, Decided Feb. 5, 2013).

The deceased was a 32-year-old mother of two who died of an embolism following elective, outpatient, liposuction surgery. Her husband, the administrator of the estate, sued the medical professionals involved. The plaintiff/widower testified at his deposition that his wife told him she was suffering with chest pains and shortness of breath in the two days following surgery and prior to her death. It was his account of these ailments that formed a large part of the basis for the opinion of plaintiff's medical expert, Dr. Mark Taff, a pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner of Rockland County, NY. The plaintiff also testified that he telephoned the defendants to report his wife's symptoms but that they did not return his calls, and did not make any other attempt to follow up with the patient to see how she was faring.