Following Lisa’s death, her daughter Whitney filed a medical malpractice suit on behalf of Lisa’s wrongful-death beneficiaries. Whitney’s complaint asserted that Lisa’s healthcare providers, including Dr. Doolittle, were negligent in treating her sepsis. In her discovery responses, Whitney stated that she sought to designate Dr. Scott A. Resnick, a
board-certified interventional radiologist, as her medical expert witness.
According to Dr. Resnick’s curriculum vitae, he was licensed to practice medicine in Illinois, being board certified in interventional radiology, and he had worked as a professor with the Division of Vascular Surgery and the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital since 2004. Having served as a full-time
professor since 2018, he also authored numerous published articles about percutaneous procedures, vascular and cardiovascular surgery, and interventional radiology. Additionally, although Dr. Resnick conducted numerous medical presentations related to interventional radiology, vascular and cardiovascular complications and surgeries, he had never practiced internal medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, or vascular surgery.
Dr. Resnick stated in his expert affidavit that he was “familiar with the national standard of care for a physician that provides medical care for an adult patient who has been admitted to a community hospital by an internal medicine physician with clinical signs and symptoms of cholecystitis similar to Lisa[s].” His affidavit further provided that he had
“been advised of the legal standard in Mississippi concerning the concept of a reasonable prudent minimally competent emergency room physician practicing in the United States of America with similar facilities, options, services and equipment as existed during [Lisa’s] admission to Delta Regional Medical Center (DRMC) on February 12-19, 2018.” Dr. Resnick noted that “percutaneous cholecystostomy tube (gallbladder drain) is a simple and routinely performed non-surgical procedure” by both interventional radiologists and general surgeons.
Dr. Doolittle subsequently filed a motion to strike Dr. Resnick’s designation as an expert, followed by a motion for summary judgment. The circuit court granted Dr. Doolittle’s motion to strike and motion for summary judgment, finding that “Dr. Resnick’s curriculum vitae contains no education, training or experience which would qualify him to render opinions related to the standard of care for [a] general surgeon determining a candidate for surgery, such as the review performed by Dr. Doolittle on the Plaintiff.”
Whitney appealed. Her appeal was assigned to the Court of Appeals, which found that the circuit court abused its discretion by striking Dr. Resnick’s designation as an expert medical witness. Lee, 2025 WL 1110881, at *6. Dr. Doolittle then filed his petition for writ of certiorari, which the Mississippi Supreme Court granted.
The Mississippi Supreme Court stated in its April 16, 2026 En Banc opinion: “In the present case, the only evidence before the Court regarding Dr. Resnick’s qualifications is contained in his affidavit. We find no evidence that Dr. Resnick held himself out to be an expert in the field of general surgery nor did he have experience evaluating patients with end-stage liver disease to determine whether they were candidates for surgery. Additionally, we find no evidence suggesting that Dr. Resnick ever performed the “non-surgical options for gallbladder decompression such as percutaneous cholecystostomy tube placement” referred to in his affidavit. His affidavit does not make reference to his familiarity with the standard of care for a general surgeon nor does it reference any training or experience as a general surgeon … We now reiterate the wide discretion this Court gives to trial courts under Rule 702. With that in mind, this Court finds that the trial court was within its discretion to exclude Dr. Resnick’s expert testimony as unqualified under Rule 702 and, likewise, to grant summary judgment in favor of Dr. Doolittle.”
“Because we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding Dr. Resnick’s expert testimony under Rule 702 and granting summary judgment in favor of Dr. Doolittle, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and reinstate and affirm the judgment of the trial court.”
Source Lee v. Doolittle, M.D., NO. 2023-CT-00969-SCT.
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