Serpe Andrews is proud to announce that following a five-day jury trial, the jurors of the 151st Judicial District Court of Harris County, Judge Mike Engelhart presiding, rendered a unanimous defense verdict in favor of Harvinderpal Singh, M.D. The trial team was led by John Serpe and Amanda Schramm.
The case involved an alleged failure to remove a patient’s gallbladder. Plaintiffs claimed that Dr. Singh should have removed the patient’s gallbladder despite having no experience operating on a patient his size. Plaintiffs alleged that refusal to perform gallbladder surgery on the patient was a proximate cause of his death five months later. Plaintiffs also claimed that if Dr. Singh was not going to perform the surgery himself, he should have at least found another surgeon to carry out the operation. Plaintiffs sought six-figure damages at trial.
Mr. Serpe and Ms. Schramm, however, showed that Dr. Singh rightfully understood his limitations and had no duty to operate on the patient. Specifically, Dr. Singh lacked the requisite experience to operate on someone of the patient’s size, and the facility was not equipped to handle this patient. Further, the evidence suggested that the patient did not even have gallstones, which would have made the decision to remove the gallbladder inappropriate and would have, ultimately, done more harm than good for the patient.
In less than an hour, the jurors reached a unanimous defense verdict, answering that Dr. Singh’s actions did not proximately cause the death of the patient.
Reed Frank Zeigler and Colleen McCarthy Zeigler v. Hung T. Nguyen, M.D. and Harvinderpal Singh, M.D., et. al., No. 2016-77555, in the 151st Judicial District Court of Harris County.
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