Spravato Claims Iraq War Veteran Suit Tepezza Claims Firm News search
Home > Colorado Blog > Winthrop University Hospital Surgeons Charged with Medical Malpractice

Winthrop University Hospital Surgeons Charged with Medical Malpractice

December 21, 2012 | 2 min read
Share:

A recent article in New York Daily News shared the story of a Brooklyn woman, Stacey Galette, who became a double amputee in 2009 as a result of alleged medical malpractice. Galette reportedly was checked into Winthrop University Hospital to have a minor gynecological operation performed.

Following the surgery, Galette developed sepsis and gangrene in her lower leg, leading the doctors to perform a double amputation of her feet. Galette filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Winthrop University Hospital surgeons in November 2010, claiming that the surgeons punctured her intestine during her gynecological procedure, which caused the devastating infection and blood poisoning that resulted in the loss of her feet.

The source indicated that Galette is 32 years old and a mother of a 12-year-old daughter. After Galette filed the claim against the Long Island hospital in Brooklyn Supreme Court, hospital lawyers argued that Galette was not living in Brooklyn at the time the lawsuit was filed. Winthrop University Hospital motioned to move the lawsuit to Nassau County, and the motion was rejected by a judge. This means that Galette will get her chance to argue her case in a Brooklyn courtroom.

The hospital had arguments of its own prepared against the case being tried in Brooklyn, which could be said to work against the hospital as the jury will be made up of Brooklyn residents.

“All of the medical care and treatment at issue occurred in Nassau County,” the hospital argued. “The place of business for all of the defendants is in Nassau County and all the potential witnesses who provided medical treatment to the plaintiff work in or worked in the Nassau County, so the most convenient venue for this trial is Nassau County.”

New York Daily News described the court’s decision to allow the malpractice suit to proceed in the Brooklyn Supreme Court as a “major legal hurdle” for claimant Stacey Galette.

Natural News reported on this case back in November 2010 after Galette filed the medical malpractice suit, describing Galette and her attorney’s reactions to the event. Galette told the source that she felt completely healthy prior to being admitted at the hospital, but that in the course of a day, her life would be different forever.

“It’s horrifying,” Galette’s lawyers told the New York Daily News. “She will be spending the rest of her life with a below-the-knees amputation, all because the doctors didn’t follow accepted medical practice.”

Share: