April, 2014

Donald Brown and Michael Dailey successfully defended a urologic surgeon against allegations of medical malpractice in Jefferson Circuit Court. Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendant improperly performed a nephroureterectomy by damaging the contralateral ureter, improperly opening the bladder and thereby allowing cancer to seed, culminating in the patient’s death. Brown and Dailey countered by establishing that the nephroureterectomy was required to address a suspicious mass and that, intro-operatively, it would have been a medical impossibility for the retractor system to have somehow devascularized the entire contralateral ureter. The defense pointed towards acute tubular necrosis and small vessel disease as more likely sources of the ureter necrosis. As it relates to the seeding of cancer cells, the defense established through doubling rates that the decedent most likely had metastatic microscopic evidence of cancer prior to the Defendant’s involvement in her care. Upon considering the matter, the jury agreed that the Defendant acted appropriately and entered a defense verdict finding no fault against him.