Wicker Smith Orlando partners Richards Ford, Patrick Mixson obtain defense verdict

Wicker Smith Orlando partners Richards Ford and Patrick Mixson obtained a defense verdict following a seven-day wrongful death medical malpractice case in Osceola County, Florida. The plaintiff, the estate of the deceased, claimed on behalf of his surviving spouse that the 57-year-old decedent died from a pulmonary embolism two days after an arthroscopic meniscectomy surgery performed by the firm’s client, an orthopedic surgeon, in December 2014. The plaintiff claimed that the firm’s client improperly failed to recognize that the patient was at high risk for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after the procedure and negligently failed to prescribe anticoagulation medication, which allegedly would have prevented his death. The plaintiff relied upon the opinion of an orthopedic surgery expert for both standard of care and causation claims. The defendants presented the testimony of an orthopedic surgery expert and hematology expert, both of whom rejected the notion that the patient was at high risk for DVT. The defense’s orthopedic surgery expert testified that it was not the standard of care to provide prophylactic anticoagulation medication. The defendants’ hematology expert testified that the medication, if given, would not have prevented death.