Ted Smith recently secured a defense verdict in an Onondaga County medical malpractice case in which he represented co-surgeons, one an orthopedic surgeon and the second a neurosurgeon, who performed a multi-level cervical fusion with requisite laminectomies and foraminotomies. Plaintiff alleged lack of informed consent prior to undergoing surgery. Plaintiff also alleged the co-surgeons committed malpractice during surgery by failing to perform adequate foraminotomies resulting in a permanent nerve palsy complication to his right arm. Plaintiff further alleged they deviated by failing to take him back into the operating room sooner to widen the foraminotomies.
Plaintiff underwent a second surgery nine months later and relied on this subsequent procedure to show the initial surgery was inadequate. Ted successfully argued Plaintiff received appropriate information prior to surgery and gave informed consent, and the co-surgeons performed adequate foraminotomies within the standard of care. Ted also established that the nerve palsy was a known complication of the surgery and co-surgeons’ post-operative treatment of Plaintiff complied with the standard of care by appropriately prescribing conservative treatment. An Onondaga County jury returned a defense verdict in favor of both Defendants in only two hours. This was Ted’s third straight defense verdict in the last six months.
