On May 3, 2016, Alan J. Fumuso obtained a unanimous defendants verdict for his client, a transplant surgeon, in Supreme Court Suffolk County. The case arose out of circumstances that had garnered both local and national media attention. Specifically in 2007 a 15 year old boy died in Stony Brook Hospital. The cause of death as listed as presumed bacterial meningitis. His organs were donated for transplantation. It turned out that the cause of death was T-cell lymphoma, a deadly form of cancer. Two of the recipients died, and two had their cancerous kidneys removed and survived with chemotherapy, although they were disqualified for years to be further transplant recipients. Plaintiff’s counsel brought four separate actions against four individual transplant surgeons, alleging negligence in accepting a listed cause of death of presumed bacterial meningitis that was never confirmed by positive culture. Over the course of ten years plaintiff’s counsel had obtained verdicts and settlements in three of the actions, totaling more than “$3,000,000. The decision was made to defend the case against the kidney transplant surgeon defended by Mr. Fumuso. A three week trial ensued, with both Plaintiff and Defendant calling nationally renowned transplant surgeons as experts. The defendant transplant surgeon was on the witness stand for nine hours over three days. During summations Plaintiff’s counsel requested that the jury return $2,000,000 in damages. The jury deliberated 75 minutes and returned a unanimous verdict on behalf of the defendant.
