New York State Supreme Court, First Department

Our firm obtained a reversal of a New York Supreme Court’s denial of our motion for summary judgment on behalf of an Ulster County hospital. The plaintiff had presented to the emergency department complaining of severe nausea and vomiting, while on a course of IV Gentamicin. The patient was stabilized and discharged, with instructions to follow up with her primary care physician and her infectious disease specialists for repeat laboratory testing. As part of its motion for summary judgment, our office submitted an affirmation of an emergency medicine physician, who opined the hospital’s care and treatment comported with the standard of accepted emergency department care. The plaintiffs submitted the affirmations of an emergency medicine physician and an infectious disease physician, in opposition to summary judgment. This office argued on reply that the plaintiffs’ experts’ opinions were vague, conclusory, not supported by the medical records, and improperly sought to expand the duty of an emergency medicine physician. The First Department held, unanimously, that plaintiffs’ experts had failed to raise a triable issue of fact warranting a trial.