Personal Injury Attorneys NY | Cardiac Malpractice: "This case involved a failure to timely transfer a patient from a local community hospital to a tertiary care hospital once a diagnosis had been made of unstable angina. The patient's angina required urgent cardiac catheterization which was not carried out until approximately 31 hours later. In the interim the patient sustained two heart attacks or myocardial infarctions. The case was tried before a jury in Nassau County resulting in a substantial verdict.
At trial the defense called an interventional cardiologist to support its claim that cardiac malpractice did not occur and that heart damage if it occurred was minimal. The so-called “expert witness” was board-certified in three areas, internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He had 23 years of experience and had published approximately 45 peer-reviewed medical journal articles. As initially presented this witness appeared to be a credible witness for the defense. Testimony was offered about the heart, stress tests, hypertension, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cholesterol, blood supply to the heart, ejection fraction, cardiac enzymes, bypass surgery, cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, cardiac stents and treatment with TPA.
On cross-examination this golden witness for the defense lost some of his luster. The purpose of cross-examination was to attack the witness’s credibility and to get as many medical concessions as possible to aid our case.
