Elizabeth Corley (Of Counsel-White Plains, NY) obtained a directed verdict in the New York State Supreme Court, Suffolk County, on behalf of Wilson Elser’s client, a nursing rehabilitation center, following an eight-day jury trial. The plaintiff claimed that the codefendants in this matter, a doctor and a physician’s assistant, negligently failed to prevent an infection after her mother underwent a right knee arthroplasty in July 2013, which was then improperly treated at our client’s rehabilitation facility. The plaintiff further claimed that our client did not timely transfer her mother to the hospital. The decedent ultimately underwent removal of the knee implant with irrigation, debridement, and placement of antibiotic spacers, multiple closed reductions, and, in September 2013, a permanent knee fusion. She died five years later from unrelated causes.

The plaintiff called four fact witnesses and two expert witnesses, including an orthopedic surgery expert and a geriatric medicine expert. Liz argued that the facility timely and properly followed both the surgeon’s orders and those of the facility’s internal physician; properly and timely monitored the decedent for signs and symptoms of infection, including drainage; properly administered the IV antibiotics; timely changed the surgical wound dressings; and timely notified the surgeon of a change in condition in August 2013, at which time decedent was immediately transferred to the hospital. 

On cross-examination, after establishing that the plaintiff’s expert lacked a specialty in infectious diseases, Liz secured the expert’s agreement on 78 instances where the decedent’s chart documented proper care. Ultimately, the court dismissed the case on motion by all defendants, finding that the plaintiff’s experts failed to establish the necessary element of causation.