Dov Sternberg (Partner-New York) and Matthew Weinberg (Associate-New York) obtained summary judgment on behalf of a major New York City hospital, dismissing plaintiff's complaint in a medical malpractice action in the New York State Supreme Court, Kings County. The then 77-year-old decedent was admitted for triple vessel coronary artery disease, but underwent emergency cardio-thoracic surgery and was diagnosed with cardiogenic shock. The decedent developed pressure ulcers during his hospitalization and was transferred to a non-party hospital, where he remained until his death three months later. Plaintiff alleged our client failed to implement proper protocols, causing 15 decubitus ulcers. Dov and Matt moved for summary judgment, arguing that the main claim by plaintiff's expert, that the nurses failed to turn the decedent every two hours during the first 48 hours after the surgery, was speculative. We argued that the decedent was at all times on a special mattress and was properly offloaded and monitored throughout the admission.
Our geriatric medicine expert opined that the development of pressure ulcers was unavoidable – despite the hospital's adherence to all pressure ulcer prevention protocols – due to the lifesaving interventions that were implemented including placing the decedent on a ventilator, vasopressors, high-dose steroids for treatment of ARDS and continuous arterial venous hemodialysis, which all contributed to causing an extremely rapid deterioration of his skin condition. The expert opined that without those interventions the patient would have died at that point. We also cast doubt on the claim that the decedent's death was attributed to the alleged negligence, and that the cause of action for lack of informed consent should be dismissed as plaintiff failed to oppose our motion with respect to this claim. The court agreed with every aspect of Dov and Matt's argument and dismissed plaintiff's medical malpractice claim, wrongful death claim and lack of informed consent claim, and granted our motion for summary judgment in full.
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