Judge: NY Hospital Can Be Sued in Phila. for Post-MRI Contact With Patient in Pa.
A Philadelphia judge has allowed a medical malpractice lawsuit to proceed against New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, finding that jurisdiction is proper in part because the claims revolve around allegedly false MRI results the hospital provided to the now-deceased plaintiff after he had returned home to Pennsylvania.
February 06, 2020 at 01:31 PM
3 minute read
A Philadelphia judge has allowed a medical malpractice lawsuit to proceed against New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, finding that jurisdiction is proper in part because the claims revolve around allegedly false MRI results the hospital provided to the now-deceased plaintiff after he had returned home to Pennsylvania.
The Estate of David Albert sued Sloan Kettering, along with several other defendants, alleging that Albert died because the hospital failed to inform him and his Pennsylvania doctors that the results of an MRI he underwent at its facility showed he was at risk for bleeding in his head.
Sloan Kettering filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that jurisdiction was improper because "there is no alleged negligence at any of the New York encounters and there is no injury at any of the New York encounters."
The hospital also sought to rely on the Pennsylvania Superior Court's 2012 ruling in Mendel v. Williams, in which a three-judge panel ruled that a plaintiff could not assert personal jurisdiction in Pennsylvania over an out-of-state medical provider in a medical malpractice action for treatment that occurred outside of Pennsylvania.
But in a Jan. 31 opinion, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson called reliance on Mendel in the Albert matter "misplaced."
"As plaintiff-estate and all co-defendants argue, the claims for negligence here are injuries incurred while plaintiff-decedent was present in Pennsylvania," Massiah-Jackson said. "Specifically, Sloan Kettering affirmatively contacted Mr. Albert in Pennsylvania and gave him false information about his MRI results; Sloan Kettering failed to forward Mr. Albert's medical records to his Pennsylvania physicians while he was in Pennsylvania; Sloan Kettering failed to advise Mr. Albert to stop taking daily aspirin while he was in Pennsylvania; Sloan Kettering failed to coordinate care with Mr. Albert's medical providers while he was in Pennsylvania. It was thee and other failures which caused harm to David Albert."
Massiah-Jackson further noted that at least one of Sloan Kettering's doctors continued to participate in Albert's treatment at co-defendant St. Mary Medical Center in Bucks County and that the plaintiff's expert opined this continued input may have clouded St. Mary's physicians' ability to properly diagnose and treat Albert.
In addition, Massiah-Jackson found that Sloan Kettering had sufficient minimum contacts in Pennsylvania to establish specific jurisdiction, including marketing and clinical trial recruitment efforts aimed at the Lehigh Valley.
Counsel for the plaintiffs, Joel Feller of Ross Feller Casey in Philadelphia, said in an emailed statement: "This is a unique and egregious case where a New York hospital expressly promised to remotely coordinate the care of a Pennsylvania patient, and then called him in Pennsylvania to tell him, incorrectly, that his brain MRI was benign—because the providers had not even bothered to read the full MRI report. Judge Massiah-Jackson thoroughly considered the facts and we are pleased that the judge rejected what is now the fourth attempt by this out-of-state hospital to evade responsibility for the catastrophic brain injuries suffered by Mr. Albert."
Counsel for Sloan Kettering, Daniel Ferhat of White & Williams in Philadelphia, could not be reached for comment.
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