A Monmouth County judge on Feb. 19 approved a $6.5 million settlement in Roman v. Rahal, a medical malpractice case lodged on behalf of an infant who sustained permanent injuries during hernia repair surgery.

The settlement was reached last Nov. 18 and approved in a Feb. 19 order by Superior Court Judge Joseph Quinn.

According to counsel and documents in the case, the infant, Clara Roman, was born premature at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in April 2012 and returned for repair of a inguinal hernia in July of that year. A week after that surgery, on July 31, 2012, Clara's parents brought her to the emergency room for treatment of a recurrent bulge, and she was intubated in preparation for emergency surgery the following morning, on Aug. 1, 2012, according to the family's lawyers, Robert Adinolfi and Peter Chamas of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge.

Clara, sustaining a brain injury, experienced chronic static encephalopathy, leading to issues with motor control, seizures, vision and learning, the lawyers said. Clara is now 7, and the family lives in Colorado, where she receives therapy through the school system, they said.

The suit named as defendants the anesthesiologist from the Aug. 1, 2012, surgery, William J. Rahal M.D., and his medical group, Jersey Shore Anesthesiology, as well as Jersey Shore Medical Center and Meridian Health Inc., which owns the hospital. It claimed Rahal and hospital staff were negligent by improperly intubating Clara, and by failing to properly monitor her breathing and oxygen levels.

The defendants denied liability, contending in part that Clara's brain injury is attributable to the premature birth and a bacterial infection, according to the lawyers.

The parties had a trial date scheduled for Jan. 6 and settled following mediation with Dennis O'Brien of the Keefe Law Firm in Red Bank, a retired Superior Court judge.

Quinn's Feb. 19 order approving the settlement provided for the following payments: $4.5 million for the purchase of structured settlements; $1.91 million for attorney fees and costs; about $1 million for a trust benefiting Clara; $250,000 each to Clara's parents, Jodi and Mario Roman; and about $90,000 to satisfy various liens.

Rahal and Jersey Shore Anesthesiology Associates were represented by David Bishop of Crammer, Bishop, Marczyk, & O'Brien in Absecon; Jersey Shore Medical Center and Meridian, by Paul Schaaff Jr. of Orlovsky, Moody, Schaaff, Conlon & Gabrysiak in West Long Branch. Neither returned a call about the settlement.

— David Gialanella

$1 Million in Ocean Auto Case

Sclavunos v. Gillikin: A Toms River woman on Jan. 27 entered a $1 million settlement in her Ocean County case after her car was struck by a tow truck.

On Dec. 22, 2015, plaintiff Kristyn Sclavunos, then 42, was driving a tan 2001 Mazda 626 on Route 37 in Toms River, near the intersection of Garfield Avenue, when a tow truck operated by the defendant, Stephen P. Gillikin, attempted to make a right turn onto Garfield Avenue from the center lane, according to the police report. While making the turn, Gillikin, then 51 of Barnegat, struck Sclavunos' car as it was traveling in the right lane, the report said. Sclavunos's daughter, Ilisia Ortiz, who was 14 at the time, was a passenger in Sclavuno's Mazda at the time of the collision.

As a result of the accident, Sclavunos' doctors claimed that she sustained a disc herniation at L5-S1, with disc desiccation and annular tear, requiring surgery, and an injury to her left knee, later treated with a cortisone injection, the suit claimed. Ortiz suffered sprains and strains of her back but received no significant treatment, according to the plaintiffs' counsel, Michael Heck of Epstein Ostrove in Edison.

Ooida Risk Rentention Group Inc. of Grain Valley, Missouri, paid out the $1 million settlement, Heck said: $2,296 for property damage to the Mazda, and the remainder for the injury. Daniel N. Epstein of the same firm was designated trial counsel, although the case settled prior to trial.

Gillikin and Jersey Shore Lowboy Service, the tow truck company that Gillikin owned and operated, were represented by George T. McCool Jr. of Wright & O'Donnell in Iselin.

McCool confirmed that Ooida was the insurance carrier paying the $1 million sum, but declined to comment further.

Settlement was reached on Jan. 10, before the case was set to go to trial on Jan. 27, according to Heck.

Heck said a defense expert acknowledged that Sclavunos, now 46, had a minor sprain of her lower back, but challenged causation and permanency, and another expert for Gilliken disputed that Gilliken was not at fault for accident.

"We obviously disagreed with that," Heck said in a phone interview. "We fought hard for Ms. Sclavunos. We believed in her. This injury is really affecting her life with the soreness in her lower back. Because of the pain from the accident, everything is a little more difficult for her in her life."

— Suzette Parmley