New York Appellate Court Reverses Summary Judgment For Medical Malpractice Defendants In tPA Stroke Case

Court Reverses Summary Judgment In tPA Stroke Case: In its Decision & Order dated August 17, 2022, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department held: “the plaintiffs raised triable issues of fact as to whether Nandakumar departed from the accepted standard of care in his neurological evaluation and treatment of the injured plaintiff’s condition by failing to timely order and administer aspirin to the injured plaintiff, and whether such alleged departures proximately caused her alleged injuries … Furthermore, the JHMC defendants failed to establish their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by relying on the affirmation of Nandakumar’s expert, which did not address the standard of care rendered by Nagpaul and Losco, or refute the allegations of departures from accepted medical practice specific to the JHMC defendants.”

The Underlying Facts

In June 2016, Donna Walker (“plaintiff”) filed a New York medical malpractice action to recover damages for medical negligence, alleging that the defendants negligently failed to take proper medical steps to prevent her from having a stroke, including a failure to administer tissue plasminogen activator (hereinafter tPA). Nandakumar, a physician who provided treatment to the plaintiff, moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against him. In support of the motion, Nandakumar submitted, among other things, an affirmation from an expert in neurology, who opined, inter alia, that there was no indication for Nandakumar to recommend the administration of tPA or any other thrombolytic therapy when he examined the injured plaintiff on January 20, 2016, and that it was consistent with the standard of care to not administer tPA at that time. Defendants Ravinder Nagpaul, Donna M. Losco, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center (JHMC), TJH Medical Services, P.C., and Medisys Health Network, Inc. (collectively “the JHMC defendants”), also moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them, relying on the expert affirmation submitted by Nandakumar. In opposition to the defendants’ motions, the plaintiff submitted an expert affidavit from a neurosurgeon, who opined that the failure to timely order and administer aspirin to the plaintiff was a departure from accepted standards of medical practice.

In an order entered November 29, 2018, the trial court granted the defendants’ separate motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against each of them, determining that the plaintiff improperly raised new theories of liability for the first time in opposition to the defendants’ motions. A judgment was entered on May 7, 2019, in favor of Nandakumar and against the plaintiff, dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against him. The plaintiffs appealed.

New York Appellate Court Opinion

The New York Appellate Court held that “the Supreme Court should have denied the defendants’ separate motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against each of them.”

Source Walker v. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, 2022 NY Slip Op 04996.

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