Chris DeFrancesco Wins Another No Cause In Oswego County

Chris DeFrancesco successfully defended two OB/GYNs accused of failing to timely diagnosis a bladder injury during a total abdominal hysterectomy that allegedly resulted in permanent damage including interstitial cystitis, chronic bladder leakage, urgency, frequency and bladder spasms to the 39yo plaintiff. She alleged the surgeons failed to timely identify a 1.5 cm hole in the patient’s bladder by failing to employ common and accepted methods to assess the integrity of the patient’s bladder prior to concluding the surgery.  Plaintiff further alleged the failure to timely diagnosis the injury post-operatively resulted in the formation of a vesicovaginal fistula.  Plaintiff alleged as a result of the failure to timely diagnosis the injury she required further surgery, chronic medication management, tibial nerve stimulation, Botox treatment and implantation of an InterStim device.  Chris successfully established the injury was a known complication that occurs in the absence of negligence and that there was no sign of bladder injury during the surgery and that the surgeons were not required to assess the integrity of the patient’s bladder unless there was suspicion of a potential bladder complication.  He further established the hole in the patient’s bladder likely did not develop until after the surgery as a result of the bladder tissue being compromised intraoperatively and perforating overtime after surgery as the bladder wall weakened.  There was no sign of a potential complication until 5 days post-operatively at which time the surgeons immediately ordered additional testing and established a treatment plan.  The jury returned a verdict in favor of both surgeons after only several hours of deliberation.