Baltimore Man Paralyzed by Neurosurgeon Case Result

A Maryland jury decided that neurosurgeon, Charles L. Schnee, M.D. and Hennessy, Shuey, & Schnee, Chartered committed malpractice by negligently managing a patient’s post-operative care following surgery, which left 64-year old Richard Dallatezza a paraplegic. 

Charles L. Schnee, M.D. and Hennessy, Shuey, & Schnee, Chartered were ordered by a jury verdict to pay $4.24 million for committing medical malpractice following spinal surgery.

On October 14, 2014, after a one-week trial, the verdict was returned for husband and wife, Richard and Gail Dallatezza. H. Briggs Bedigian, a prominent medical malpractice attorney from the firm Gilman & Bedigian, LLC served as the Plaintiffs’ attorney.

It took the jury only two and a half hours of deliberation to determine that Charles L. Schnee, M.D.’s conduct was negligence by unnecessarily placing his patient in harm’s way following surgery by (1) undertaking Mr. Dallatezza’s post-operative care without assistance of a hospitalist and (2) restarting Mr. Dallatezza’s pre-surgical anti-hypertension medications. Charles L. Schnee, M.D.’s negligence caused Mr. Dallatezza to have a hypotensive event that led to a spinal cord stroke, which left him paralyzed from the nipples down.

The Plaintiffs’ case provided two overwhelming pieces of evidence. One, testimony from the Plaintiffs of Charles L. Schnee, M.D. admitting over-medication may have been the cause of Mr. Dallatezza’s stroke. Two, Charles L. Schnee, M.D.’s diagnosis as written in the official medical records indicated, nine different times, that hypotension caused Mr. Dallatezza’s stroke (which was the precise claim made by Plaintiffs).

At trial, Charles L. Schnee, M.D. argued by recanting his diagnosis written in the medical records and argued that a blood clot and/or shock caused Mr. Dallatezza’s stroke. The jury found the doctor’s argument defective because, one, the doctor could not offer any evidence in the medical records to prove his argument; and two, the doctor did not recant his diagnosis until after litigation commenced.

The legal team at Gilman & Bedigian, LLC has an excellent reputation as dedicated and successful trial attorneys, helping malpractice and personal injury victims recover losses sustained from their injuries. H. Briggs Bedigian is a partner with Gilman & Bedigian, LLC. Prior to co-founding the firm, he was a partner at Wais, Vogelstein and Bedigian, LLC where he was the head of the litigation practice. Briggs’ practice remains focused on representing clients involved in complex medical malpractice and catastrophic personal injury cases in the Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia area. Briggs has tirelessly fought for the rights of the most seriously injured people, primarily representing clients in the Mid-Atlantic region of Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. He has also tried cases in courtrooms across the country.