Craig B. Merkle and Adam Kelley recently obtained a defense verdict in a wrongful death suit on behalf of a general surgeon in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County, Maryland. In the case of Paluba v. MASG, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant surgeon failed to properly repair and treat an anastamotic leak discovered during a low anterior resection for rectal cancer. The patient's subsequent course was complicated by a persistent high ileostomy output, Klebsiella pneumonia, an inflamed abdominal aortic aneurysm, an infected endograft and an aortoenteric fistula. After 8 days of trial, the jury determined that the defendant had not breached the standard of care in the decisions made at the time of surgery or in the patient's postoperative management. Nine physicians testified during the trial on a wide range of issues, including, surgical oncology, infectious disease, vascular surgery, and gastroenterology.
