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This action settled during jury selection for $1,500,000. Decedent, a 45-year-old hairdresser, presented to Queens Hospital Center on 9/19/91 with severe abdominal pain. She underwent an exploratory laparotomy on 9/21, which revealed a small bowel obstruction that had been caused by adhesions from a tubal ligation performed years before. Deft. Dr. Cosgrove performed a lysis of adhesions. Pltf. claimed that during the procedure Deft. Cosgrove perforated the small intestine. After the surgery was completed, decedent developed a hole in her intestine. Bowel contents leaked into her peritoneal cavity, causing peritonitis, and requiring a second surgery on 9/27/91. It was during the second procedure that Deft. discovered the perforated intestine and found that the cavity had become contaminated. Deft. performed an anastomosis and a section of the perforated intestine was removed and sent to pathology. The hole was 2 cm. wide. The peritonitis subsequently developed into sepsis and although decedent had been on maximum IV from 9/29, she died from an overwhelming infection on 10/4/91.
Pltf. claimed that Deft. created the perforation by improperly performing the surgery, and that Deft. waited too long to perform the second procedure despite the signs of infection.
Deft. denied that he perforated the small intestine, and claimed that it subsequently spontaneously ruptured. He argued that decedent did not have an infection when the second procedure was performed. Deft. contended that decedent should have recovered after the anastomosis, but she was suffering from pneumonia and pelvic inflammatory disease, which may have caused her death.
Pltf. claimed that decedent earned $700 a week. Deft. argued that Pltf. could not prove the lost earnings because decedent did not have any tax returns. Deft. also contended that employees at the beauty parlor where decedent claimed that she worked denied that they knew her.
Decedent, age 45 at her death, is survived by her 49-year-old husband and six adult children. |