Go to navigation Go to content
Phone: (516) 487-8207

Recent Events in the News

Infant's Oxygen Tube Dislodged Following Surgery - Quadriplegia With Reduced Vision and Cognitive Delays $75.9 Million New Jersey Verdict


Posted on Oct 19, 2005

Infant's Oxygen Tube Dislodged Following Surgery - Quadriplegia With Reduced Vision and Cognitive Delays -$75.9 Million New Jersey Verdict. The plaintiff, age four months at the time, was recovering from surgery to remove a spinal cyst when his oxygen tube became dislodged. The plaintiff had no oxygen for between ten and fifteen minutes. Now age six, the plaintiff is quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair, nearly blind and cognitively delayed. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant pediatric intensive care nurse failed to properly supervise or act promptly on discovering that the tube was out of place. The plaintiff claimed that another nurse had negligently applied Norcuron (a paralytic) to stop any further jostling of the tube, which suppressed the ability to breathe. The plaintiff claimed that the supervising anesthetist failed to act in a timely manner after the tube was out of place. Two physicians were faulted for negligently supervising the anesthetist. According to a published account, a $75.9 million verdict was returned. Fault was apportioned fifty percent to the anesthetist, forty percent to the supervising physicians and ten percent to the pediatric intensive care nurse. Casey Pellicer v. St. Barnabas Medical Center, Essex County (NJ) Superior Court, Case No.___. Craig Rothenberg and Dean Pashaian, Union, NJ for the plaintiff. Louis Ruprecht, Ruprecht, Hart and Weeks, Millburn, NJ for the nurse. R. Burke Giblin, Jr., Biglin and Combs, Morristown, NJ for the anesthetist. Joseph Garrubbo, Garrubbo, Romankow,: Rinaldo and Capece, Westfield, NJ and Catherine Flynn, Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook, Westfield, NJ for the physicians.

Read More About Infant's Oxygen Tube Dislodged Following Surgery - Quadriplegia With Reduced Vision and Cognitive Delays $75.9 Million New Jersey Verdict...

back to top