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News- Verdicts/Successes
Announcements
|Verdicts/Successes
Jury finds in favor of Allentown cardiothoracic surgeon defended by Mark Perry after seven day trial.
Mark T. Perry, Esquire successfully defended a cardiothoracic
surgeon’s care and treatment of a 54 year-old
man who underwent aortic and mitral valve replacement
surgery.
The patients’ survivors brought a professional
negligence action against the surgeon and the hospital
alleging inadequate monitoring and a failure to timely
respond to the patient’s changed conditions leading
to his cardiac arrest. At the trial, plaintiff’s
expert criticized the surgeon for failing to respond
earlier to the patient’s signs of cardiac tamponade.
However, the cardiothoracic surgery expert offered by
the defense defended the surgeon stating that the surgeon’s
response was timely, appropriate and within the standard
of care. The defense expert explained that cardiac tamponade
occurs when fluid accumulates around the heart and prevents
the heart from filling appropriately. He stated that
it can occur very suddenly, as it did in this case,
when drainage from the medistinal tubes becomes blocked
by clot of tissue. The expert stated that the patient
did not show signs of cardiac tamponade until just before
he went into cardiac arrest. Finally, the defense expert
concluded that when this patient’s cardiac arrest
occurred, both the surgeon and the hospital provided
appropriate and timely interventions. The jury agreed
and rendered a verdict in favor of the cardiothoracic
surgeon.
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