Joseph Lichtenstein Wins $10,000,000 Malpractice Verdict

Joseph Lichtenstein, Esq., nationally renowned trial lawyer from the Law Offices of Joseph Lichtenstein, P.C, won a 10 Million Dollar verdict this past Friday in Westchester County, New York against a prominent neurosurgeon for failure to timely recognize and remove a postoperative epidural hematoma. The plaintiff, a kind man originally from Jamaica, who is now 62 years old, was left with the complete loss of use of both his feet.

The defense never offered more than $200,000 to settle this case.

Following a routine 1-level laminectomy procedure for a fairly mild degenerative disc disease, which should have been completely successful, the plaintiff – who only had mild left foot weakness as well as left leg pain prior to the procedure – woke up from surgery with multiple new onset symptoms, which included right-sided foot drop and upper leg weakness, as well as upper leg weakness on the left side, which were all new and did not exist prior to surgery. 

In addition, the plaintiff’s blood output in the drain on the first day after surgery was 2 to 3 times the normal range. The excessive blood loss continued until the defendant pulled the drain on the 4th postoperative day, despite the heavy drainage noted that very first morning after surgery. 

During the 10 days that followed surgery, while the plaintiff remained in the hospital, the defendant never documented any diagnosis to explain these new onset symptoms or the blood loss, and he never ran a single diagnostic test to investigate their causes.

Instead, he tried to discharge the plaintiff on multiple occasions, and he falsely documented that the plaintiff was improving day to day, which was proven false by the nurses’ detailed and frequent “neuro-check” assessments, assessments that the defendant had ordered the nurses to do, yet testified that he never read. The evidence established that the defendant himself never examined the plaintiff’s legs, not even once, in the 10 day postoperative time period while the plaintiff remained in the hospital.

It was finally on the 11th day, when a different neurosurgeon examined the plaintiff, and alerted the defendant to the fact that both the plaintiff’s feet had become completely nonfunctional, that the defendant did emergency surgery and discovered an extremely large epidural hematoma had been pressing on the lower spinal nerves.

Because he had waited far too long and allowed the plaintiff’s condition to become so advanced, the plaintiff’s feet never recovered. 

He was left with the complete loss of use of both his feet.  

In a series of tragic results, the plaintiff lost his job, then lost his home, and ultimately became homeless in his 60’s.

Mr. Lichtenstein, in a 4-hour-long summation, which knowledgeable observers said was one of the best summations they had ever heard, asked the jury to right this terrible injustice.

The Westchester County jury did just that, awarding the plaintiff 10 Million Dollars.

In the last 4 years, Mr. Lichtenstein has obtained 8 figure verdicts (10 Million Dollars or more) in all of his trials that have gone to verdict.