The fiancee of a Rikers Island corrections officer who died of cardiac arrest during a basketball game can go ahead with a malpractice claim against the hospital whose staff failed to resuscitate the officer, a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled last week. The decision in King v. St. Barnabas Hospital, 7431/01, written by Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, reversed a 2009 order by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas E. McKeon granting St. Barnabas Hospital summary judgment against plaintiff Janith King, who is acting as administrator of the estate of Thorrie Murray, the deceased officer.
One of the hospital staff testified that, when he found Mr. Murray, there were signs of both asystole—a lack of electrical activity in the heart—and of ventricular fibrillation. The staff responded by shocking him with a defibrillator, which is harmful to patients in asystole. After confirming asystole, they stopped defibrillation, but did not begin administering the intravenous drugs indicated for asystole for several minutes. An expert for the plaintiffs said that by shocking Mr. Murray and not starting intravenous drugs immediately, the staff deviated from accepted medical procedure.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
