SACS Successfully Argues Hospital Appropriately Followed Direction of Attending OB, Mduba Liability Did Not Exist And Grants Summary Judgment

In January 2019 Patricia Tierney-Stone and Edward Kim obtained an order of summary judgment on behalf of the defendant hospital from Justice Murphy in Supreme Court, Nassau County.  The plaintiff claimed a failure to diagnose and treat bacterial pneumonia in the maternal plaintiff led to premature delivery, and resultant neurological impairment to the infant. The defense argued the medical care offered by the hospital staff was guided by and at the sole direction of the plaintiff’s private obstetrician, and the supporting care was at all times within accepted standards of obstetrical practice. The Court agreed, finding there were no independent theories of liability as to the hospital care, and moreover, plaintiff’s arguments of Mduba liability were without merit.