On August 5, 2022, after a two-week-long jury trial in Middlesex County Superior Court, and three hours of deliberation, a jury of six returned a verdict for the Plaintiff and against Defendants Michael Azzoni, MD and Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital on a medical malpractice case.
The Defendant, Dr. Azzoni, was one of the Heywood Hospital’s orthopedic surgeons, who was discovered to have a reputation of rushing into surgeries, at times beyond his capabilities, however, the reputation evidence was not allowed before the jury.
The Plaintiff was a 19 year old young woman, who was involved in a motor vehicle crash on the morning of January 31, 2015 and was taken by ambulance to the Heywood Hospital Emergency Department. During this timeframe, Defendant Azzoni was also the President of the Hospital’s Medical Staff.
At the Heywood Hospital emergency department, at approximately 11:30 am, Plaintiff was evaluated as she complained of pain in her right wrist, lower back and right ankle, and numbness in the right hand fingers. Emergency Department staff ordered X-rays of right wrist and right ankle. The wrist X-rays revealed comminuted intra-articular fracture of her distal right radius with an associated ulnar styloid fracture. In other words, although there was no bleeding, her wrist was shattered into multiple pieces.
At approximately 1pm, the Emergency Department requested orthopedic consult, and Haywood’s Dr. Azzoni came down to evaluate the patient around 2pm. Defendant Azzoni told the patient that her only option was to have immediate surgery by him, or she would lose her hand, and by approximately 3:30 pm, the surgery began. Both during discovery phase of the case, and during trial, Defendant Azzoni conceded that the patient should have been given at least three different choices/options (no surgical treatment, referral to hand specialist/tertiary facilities, or surgery by him) but he robbed the patient of two of those choices, leaving treatment by him as the only choice).
Defendant Azzoni performed a closed reduction of the wrist fracture, with application of an external fixator, total surgical time being approximately 40 minutes. During trial it was confirmed by both sides, including both sides’ experts, that the closed reduction with external fixator (“ex-fix”) was the least preferred and most outdated approach. This was also confirmed, contemporaneously, as Defendant Azzoni’s post surgical notes indicate that he saw on mini x-rays some bone fragments that remained displaced and the never deficits remained – however, this information about the patient’s body and condition was also kept from the patient by the doctor.
Patient had multiple follow up appointments with Defendant Azzoni, at his Heywood office on February 6th, 12th, and 20th, however, despite ongoing complaints (and objective notations) of nerve deficits, Defendant did not order or take any additional imaging studies (conceding that x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs were available to him at Heywood) and on March 11, he blindly removed the ex-fix, replaced it with a cast.
On April 1, 2015 Defendant Azzoni removed the cast, ordered and reviewed new x-rays, and told patient that she is well healed and ordered Occupational Therapy. However, patient could not tolerate and continue with Occupational Therapy because her wrist was not healed property – it clearly did not look right – and she was still in too much pain, and after not having heard from Defendant Azzoni ever again, she looked for a second opinion elsewhere.
Moreover, the radiologist’s report of the April 1, 2015 x-ray confirmed that it was an incompletely healed injury, and during trial, with the black-and-white x-ray images displayed for all, everyone (both Plaintiff’s and Defendants’ experts), and eventually even Defendant Azzoni, confirmed that the x-rays showed an improper healing – a malunion – which even though it is a known possible complication of most wrist surgeries, was the one that Defendant Azzoni never disclosed to the patient pre-procedure (perhaps because he believed that he can do no wrong).
During the trial the Defendant conceded, including the Defendants’ paid expert – a hand specialist orthopedic surgeon form Boston – that the premature removal of the ex-fix in March is what led to and caused the malunion (and left the patient with a deficit and deformity of her dominant wrist for the rest of her life).
After seeking second opinion locally, but being told to seek a specialist instead, by October 2015, patient was evaluated in Boston by Dr. Earp – a world renowned hand specialist – who after additional x-rays and exams, informed patient that her wrist fracture was mal-union – not healed properly – and she was a candidate for surgical repair, but needed to stop smoking first.
It took her a while to quit smoking for good, with additional delays due to pregnancy and then COVID, finally, in the last two years, she had two corrective surgeries by Dr. Earp’s colleague Dr. Zhang, and is doing better now. But to this date her wrist remains permanently deformed and she has limitations in its use.
With COVID delays the case finally reached trial in July and August 2022, after more than four years of litigation and seven plus years since the malunion caused by Defendant Azzoni.
During the trial, Defendants’ continued to claim that they did nothing wrong, and tried to blame the patient for not returning to Defendant Azzoni (after that April 1, 2015 x-ray) and for the delay in the corrective surgeries.
However, during cross-examination, Defendants’ own expert conceded that the delay in getting the corrective surgeries did not make the condition any worse, as the damage was already done by that April 1, 2015 encounter with Defendant Azzoni, and the jury apparently didn’t fault the patient for not choosing to continue her care with Defendant Azzoni – when she finally was given a choice.
The Hospital / corporate defendants claimed that they had nothing to do with Defendant Azzoni, because he was an “independent contractor” and responsible for choosing what medical treatment he provides to the Hospital’s patient. The Hospital’s representative – the Executive Director and Vice President – even conceded that the Hospital does not care about the level of or safety of the care provided to the patients, as long as someone is there to provide some services (and they can bill for it). However, the Hospital apparently ignored the fact that in addition to Defendant Azzoni being represented by them as “one of their own doctors” was also the President of its medical staff, and an officer/director of the corporation.
After a two-week-long trial, the jury – based on all the facts before them – finally held Defendants responsible for the blatant violations of the patient safety rules. Jury held that Defendant Azzoni was negligent and his negligence caused harm to the patient, and that while he was negligent, he was an agent of the Hospital working within the scope of his apparent authority.
Jury’s compensatory verdict was for $2,870,000.00, which, with statutory costs and interests should result in approximately 4.5 Million Dollars judgment (however, given our Commonwealth’s pro-insurance anti-patient laws, actually will result in judgment closer to 3.5 Million Dollars) finally giving the Plaintiff closure and justice.
If you, or your loved one, also have been a victim of medical malpractice in Massachusetts, contact us at Sobczak Law for free, no-obligation, consultation.