News

High drama, high stakes in store in malpractice case

Dr. Michael Rosner (left) confers with defense attorney Scott Stevenson. Plaintiff Billy Justus leaves Henderson County Courthouse with attorney Wade Byrd.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 10, 2014

Stevenson, Rosner's attorney, emphasized that the plaintiffs — "the burden-of-proof party" — get to go first. Their case is expected to last two weeks.
"You have to pay as much attention to us as you did two weeks of the plaintiff's case," he said.
Pam Justus, who was diabetic, died in 2012 of fatty liver disease, "not of the surgery 12 years earlier," Stevenson said. (In a pretrial motion, lawyers say an internist will testify about Pam Justus's "history of obesity and diabetes and the correlation between obesity and fatty deliver disease.")
Scott Stevenson, right, confers with his client, neurosurgeon Michael Rosner.The plaintiffs, Stevenson went on, have to prove negligence and fraud and a causal link between the two. "If they trip over one of those hurdles, they can't recover" damages, he said.
Physicians "aren't gods and sometimes they don't get that optimal result," he told prospective jurors. "They're not infallible. You understand that? Do you believe in personal responsibility and that a doctor can only do so much if you're not willing to take care of yourself?"
He asked jurors, "Do you believe in giving both sides a fair trial. Are you ready to hear both sides of the story? Are you willing to wait?"
In filings with the North Carolina Medical Board, Rosner, who has been a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina and at the University of Alabama, has said that his patients have seen their problems resolved or greatly diminished after surgery. Of 62 patients he compiled data on prior to January 2008, 18 reported "complete or near complete resolution of their chief complaint," 13 reported significant improvement and 31 reported improvement, he told the Medical Board. Of 55 patients who were on narcotics before surgery, 26 reported dropping narcotics entirely and 29 reported only occasional or generally decreased use, he said.
In pretrial motions summarizing the expected testimony from expert witnesses, attorneys for Park Ridge have said they will offer surgeons, medical ethicists, hospital executives and other experts to rebut the plaintiff's charges of negligence, poor monitoring and fraud. The experts will testify that "the hospital's credentialing and monitoring of Dr. Michael Rosner was not a proximate cause of any injury" Pam Justus sustained.
Stevenson will offer expert witnesses who will testify that Dr. Rosner acted in accord with appropriate standards of care and "exercised his best judgment in the care and treatment of Pamela Justus." The defense experts are expected to tell the jury that "no causal nexus exists between the alleged acts or omissions of (Rosner and the hospital) and the condition of Pamela Justus."