11/15/2024
On October 3, 2024, a Brooklyn, New York jury returned a verdict of $18,500,000 on behalf of a SullivanBrill client. The case was tried by attorneys Joseph F. Sullivan and Steven G. Brill with support provided by James Healy, Esq., Brittni Sullivan and LeeAnna Sullivan.
The case involved a claim of medical malpractice that occurred in Wyckoff Heights Medical Center emergency room on September 16, 2012. SullivanBrill’s client had been arrested at 5:00 pm on September 15. He was taken to Wyckoff by the NYPD at 1:00 am because he was complaining of chest pain. At the hospital, he complained of chest pain/heart palpitations and a headache for one month. He had an elevated blood pressure and heart rate. The primary nurse documented “occasional” alcohol use. In fact, the client had a significant history of heavy alcohol dependence dating back 30 years. The emergency room doctor failed to elicit this history or perform any bloodwork, which would have cued him into the client’s alcohol use, due to a very low platelet count. The client was in the emergency room for a total of one hour and four minutes and the emergency room doctor entered an order discharging the client within 32 minutes of triage.
The client was in fact experiencing the early symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, which the doctor failed to recognize due to an inadequate work up. The doctor released the client back to police custody with no treatment or special instructions to the NYPD. The doctor’s final diagnosis was anxiety due to the stress of the day. Ten hours later, while still in police custody, the client had a seizure, fell, and hit his head sustaining a contracoup brain injury that led to significant bleeding. The client’s brain continued to bleed. Two days later, he underwent a craniectomy, a surgery involving the removal of part of the skull to relieve the pressure caused by the bleeding. As part of the craniectomy procedure, a portion of the skull was implanted in the abdomen for sterile storage until it could be restored.
Unfortunately, the client’s brain continued to bleed and became infected. He underwent three additional brain surgeries, and the removed portion of his skull could not be replaced. He was left catastrophically brain damaged and is now confined to a nursing home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He is married with six kids. He has no control over the left side of his body or his right leg. His brain function is compromised. He can communicate in a very limited way with his wife. No one else can understand him, but he does recognize and interact with his wife and children and can signal for things he likes and does not like. His wife visits him every day, and has done so for the last 12 years, often with his children.
The doctor and hospital refused to accept any responsibility for the incident, claiming that blood work was not necessary, that they had no reason to suspect alcohol withdrawal based upon the presentation, and the client’s responses about his alcohol use, and that they had no responsibility to inquire more deeply into the client’s use of alcohol. During its closing argument, SullivanBrill admitted 25% responsibility due to the client being in police custody, being an alcoholic and possibly failing to be as forthcoming with his alcohol use as he should have been.
The jury, a smart, caring group of people from Brooklyn, found that the doctor departed from the standard of care in failing to order blood work and failing to obtain an adequate medical history from the client, and that these departures were a cause of the client’s injuries. It assigned 30% of the responsibility to the client and provided $2,400,000 for the client’s past pain and suffering for the last 12 years, $3,150,000 for the client’s future pain and suffering over the next 21 years, $1,200,000 for the client’s wife’s loss of society for the past 12 years, $2,400,000 for the wife’s loss of society over the next 21 years, and $9,464,727 for the client’s medical care over the next 21 years. The client’s wife plans to bring her husband home once the jury’s award is collected.
