Defense Verdict in Mammogram Resulting in Ruptured Breast Implant Case

Senior Trial Partner Daniel Freidlin assisted by Aryeh Klonsky and Jacqueline Wild obtained a defense verdict in Supreme Court, Queens County. The case involved a 71-year-old married woman who claimed that our client's radiology facility and employed technologist negligently performed a mammogram resulting in rupture of her 29-year-old breast implant. Although the compression forces used during the mammogram at issue were triple those used in the past, the defense established through our expert (and plaintiff’s expert) plastic surgeon that breast implants have a known lifespan of 10-20 years and that rupture was an accepted risk of mammography. Further, we established through experts for both sides that the rupture was present on the first view of the subject mammography, and thus it would be impossible to prove when the rupture occurred or that it was due to negligent compression (implant rupture is generally asymptomatic). In addition to arguing that mammography was focused on breast cancer prevention and not breast implant protection, we argued that the plaintiff’s claim was speculative since nobody could prove when the rupture occurred. The jury returned a unanimous defense verdict in under an hour.