Attorneys representing clients in a medical malpractice jury
trial at the San Benito County Superior Court gave closing
arguments Thursday.
Attorneys representing clients in a medical malpractice jury trial at the San Benito County Superior Court gave closing arguments Thursday.
Hollister resident Dorothy Castillo, 68, is suing Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Dr. Robert Wlodarczyk, a cardiologist, for alleged negligence during a 2001 heart procedure that caused her to become a quadriplegic, according to her attorney, Victor Stefan.
Stefan asked the jury to consider awarding Castillo damages in the amount of $1.6 million over a three- to four- year period, which is her life expectancy.
“Our brain is the jockey and our body is the perfect horse,” Stefan said during his closing statement. “That is not the situation with Dorothy… Her brain is saying, body keep me alive, I need you, but there’s no harmony; there’s a disconnect.”
Castillo was first admitted to Hazel Hawkins Hospital in April of 2001 for chest and upper back pain. Complications from a heart attack and surgery to implant pacemakers in her heart ultimately resulted in her being transferred to Salinas Valley Memorial, according to court documents.
Sometime during the operations and transfers, Stefan believes her spinal cord was compressed, which led to quadriplegia over a short period of time, he said.
When Wlodarczyk realized her spinal cord was causing complications, he decided not to send her to surgery because he felt she was too weak to survive, according to his attorney, Gary Winkler.
“He made a judgment call – there was nothing he could have done,” Winkler said in an interview after closing statements. “He’s not negligent because he did what he had to do to save her life. Death is the ultimate paralysis.”
Attorney Stephen Lucey, council for the Salinas hospital, said in his closing arguments that Stefan did not produce enough evidence to support a negligence claim against the hospital.
“You have to satisfy a burden of proof,” Lucey said. “The plaintiff did not do that because you can’t – it’s pure speculation.”
Lucey reiterated to the jury that several qualified experts testified that the hospital and Wlodarczyk made appropriate judgment calls just to save Castillo’s life.
“In the eyes of the law, anytime a physician is within a judgment zone all the law requires a health provider to do is exercise their best judgment,” Lucey said. “Unless it’s based on negligence, and there’s no negligence here.”
Closing statements commenced around 3 p.m. on Thursday, allowing the jury a couple hours to deliberate. It did return a verdict.
The jury will continue deliberation today, but it is impossible to predict when it will return a verdict, Winkler said.
“You never know with a jury,” he said. “It’s the worst part of being a trial lawyer.”
