Springfield Partners John Bagley and Jennifer Hylemon recently obtained a defense verdict in a medical malpractice case after a nearly two week jury trial in Hampden Superior Court. Our client was a diagnostic radiologist who performed a stereotactic breast biopsy on the plaintiff to rule out breast cancer. The allegation was that there was excessive bleeding during the procedure which was not properly treated and which caused the plaintiff to suffer hemorrhagic shock leading to a brain injury causing permanent cognitive impairment. We argued that the plaintiff suffered a vaso-vagal reaction not shock and that her cognitive problems were caused by other medical and psychological conditions. In less than two hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of no negligence.
Plaintiff’s counsel was from Philadelphia and was admitted pro hac vice for the trial, which made for some interesting challenges including an inordinate number of side bars due to his faulty expert opinion questions and lack of knowledge of the MA rules of evidence. Plaintiff’s sole expert was a critical care physician who we argued was “over-qualified” on standard of care and under-qualified on causation.
