Partner Christopher A. Terzian, assisted by Associates Victor M. Ivanoff and Jeffrey E. Bondoc, obtained a defense verdict in Westchester County on behalf of our client defendant surgeon.
Briefly, the matter involved a 53-year-old male patient who had been seen by our client defendant for approximately 20 years prior to the surgery in question. The Plaintiff experienced a workplace injury in 1994, which resulted in various significant injuries, including spinal injuries, a lawsuit and permanent disability. The Plaintiff first presented to our client in August of 1995. Plaintiff then underwent various decompressive laminectomies and fusions performed our client from November 1995 through March2013. These were all performed to treat Plaintiff’s chronic back pain associated from the original 1994 injury, and were not surgeries in controversy. In September of 2016, our client surgeon operated on the Plaintiff at a medical center in Westchester County, performing a bilateral decompressive laminectomy from L2 to S1, with removal of bone and fusion of the lumbar spine. During the surgery, defendant surgeon tore the dura, which is the outside lining of the spinal cord, causing leakage of cerebral spinal fluid. Here paired the damage intraoperatively with DuraGen and DuraSeal patch. The Plaintiff’s allegations against our client included the following: failure to obtain the plaintiff’s informed consent for the September 2016 decompressive laminectomy; alleged improper surgery; alleged improper intraoperative repair of dural tear; and failure to timely diagnose the development of pseudo-meningocele at the repair site.
At trial, through cross examination of the plaintiffs’ expert, Mr. Terzian effectively narrowed the issue to lack of informed consent and the case went to the jury on that one departure question. The jury returned a unanimous defense verdict in favor of our client within one hour.