Defense Verdict in Nassau County

HPM&B Partner Michael Sullivan and associate Natalie Hermon obtained a unanimous defense verdict in a Supreme Court, Nassau County medical malpractice case on June 20, 2024 after a two week trial. Plaintiff was 52 years old when he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor at his ileocecal valve in December 2018, by the defendant surgeon at the defendant hospital. The surgery was completed without complication and post-operative pathology confirmed that plaintiff’s malignancy had already spread to three lymph nodes prior to surgery. Plaintiff has been cancer free since the surgery, but claimed that persistent post-operative diarrhea was the result of the surgeon’s removal of excessive small intestine which allegedly resulted in short bowel syndrome. A Nassau County jury credited the testimony of the defendant and his experts in Surgery and Gastroenterology that plaintiff does not have short bowel syndrome and his change in bowel habits was the unavoidable consequence of a surgery that removed portions of his ileum and his colon, and they unanimously found that the surgery was properly performed in all respects.