$1.75 Million Dollar Settlement for Medical Malpractice

$1.75M for Medical Malpractice
April 30, 2001

Van Wyk v. Zamecki : A woman who claimed that a mishandled hip replacement operation left her partially paralyzed accepted a $1.75 million settlement from an anesthesiologist on April 2.

The case arose from an operation on Anna Van Wyk of Mahwah at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood on February 12, 1998. The plaintiff’s attorney, David Mazie, of Livingston’s Nagel Rice Dreifuss & Mazie, contended that Dr. Andre Zamecki failed to monitor Van Wyk’s blood pressure levels often enough during the operation.

As a result, Van Wyk’s blood pressure dropped, causing anterior spinal artery syndrome, lower extremity paralysis and incontinence, according to the claim. The plaintiff was 71 at the time.

Defense attorney James Sharp of Parsippany’s Reiseman Sharp Brown & Rosenberg presented evidence that if there was a drop in blood pressure significant enough to cause injury, it occurred in the post-operative period, not during the operation.

The settlement was reached before closing arguments in the trial heard by Bergen County Superior Court Judge Mark Russello.

Mazie was assisted by associates Eric Katz and Eric Szoke.

-- By Henry Gottlieb