A New York appellate court overturned a 2019 New York State Supreme Court ruling that a doctor was not liable for his patient’s death in a medical malpractice lawsuit, after the patient took his own life. According to local news reports, the underlying case was initially filed in 2018, after 48-year-old Richard Shouldis committed suicide. Shouldis had been a patient of Dr. Theodore Strange, a New York City doctor who had his own medical practice, and is also the Vice Chairman of Primary Care at Northwell Health, Vice Presidents of Strategic Initiatives at Northwell Health, and Vice President of Medical Operations at University Hospital. Dr. Strange had been treating Mr. Shouldis through his private medical practice, and was Shouldis’ primary care doctor. Shouldis saw Dr. Strange in the days before his premature death, and, at that time, complained to the New York City doctor of “worsening symptoms” including panic attacks, fatigue, excessive worry, concentration issues, and depression, as well as weight loss. Although Dr. Strange prescribed medication to Shouldis, including medication to treat anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance, Shouldis’ surviving family members, who brought the ensuing medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Strange, argued that Dr. Strange was negligent in failing to “properly recognize and evaluate the decedent’s progressively depressive and self-destructive state” and that he did not “adequately assess [Shouldis] for suicidal thoughts and ideation”. The family contended in the medical malpractice lawsuit that Dr. Strange should have immediately sent Shouldis for psychiatric treatment after he visited the doctor on June 6, 2012, when he was “extremely agitated and disturbed”, and his “condition had deteriorated so rapidly.”
A Staten Island jury ultimately awarded the family of Shouldi’s $10 million in their medical malpractice lawsuit. However, the judge presiding over the case overturned the jury’s verdict in the doctor’s favor. The Staten Island judge held that the “causal link” between Shouldi’s death and Dr. Strange’s treatment of Shouldis was “too attenuated” to hold Dr. Strange liable in the case. Shouldis’ family appealed.
This year in May, the appellate court overseeing the medical malpractice case reinstated the lower court’s jury’s decision, and now, according to Shouldis’ family’s legal counsel, “intend[s] to enforce the judgment and execute on it for the full amount that was awarded plus the interest”. Of the reinstatement of the jury award, lawyers for the family stated, “It’s been a long time coming; we thought the judge’s decision was wrong to set aside to begin with. Mrs. Shouldis is pleased with the result and happy that she was vindicated by a smart Staten Island jury and a very talented panel of the appellate division”.
If you or a loved one was injured by a doctor or medical professional in New York City, do not hesitate to learn about your rights and options under New York medical malpractice laws. Contact the experienced New York City medical malpractice lawyers at the law firm of Michael Gunzburg, P.C., and speak to a lawyer about your case now.
Source:
silive.com/news/2024/05/appeals-court-reinstates-10m-malpractice-ruling-against-prominent-staten-island-doctor.html