$350,000 for Medical Malpractice DaRocha v. Estate of George Chirovsky, M.D.: A Morris County jury awarded $350,000 Tuesday in the case of a Dover man who claimed his doctor failed to warn him of the dangers of a hernia operation in which he lost a testicle.
A - H I - P Q - Z Newest Files
$350,000 for Medical Malpractice DaRocha v. Estate of George Chirovsky, M.D.: A Morris County jury awarded $350,000 Tuesday in the case of a Dover man who claimed his doctor failed to warn him of the dangers of a hernia operation in which he lost a testicle. Prejudgment interest will bring the total judgment to $455,000, says the plaintiff's lawyer, David Mazie, of Livingston's Nagel Rice Dreifuss & Mazie. Surgeon George Chirovsky did not obtain informed consent or offer alternate treatment before his Oct. 31, 1995, operation on plaintiff Luiz DaRocha at Dover General Hospital, according to evidence submitted by Mazie and associate Eric Katz at a trial before Morris County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zucker-Zarett. The plaintiff's evidence tended to show that DaRocha was not told that he could lose a testicle or given the opportunity to have a safer, laproscopic, procedure. DaRocha's native language is Portuguese, but the consent form he signed was in Spanish, Mazie says. The plaintiff's psychological expert, Francesca Peckman of West Orange testified that DaRocha, now 55 years old, suffers from impotence and depression. The jury set the damages at $500,000 but cut the award by 50 percent, to $250,000, finding that DaRocha failed to submit to additional reasonable treatment. His wife received $100,000 for her per quod claim, and prejudgment interest will add $105,000, Mazie says. The doctor died before the trial, but he had been deposed, and the defense by Catherine Flynn, of New Providence's Tafaro & Flynn, was based on evidence that DaRocha gave consent. He had been informed of the dangers during a pre-surgery discussion in which his son had acted as an interpreter. As for the damages, Flynn elicited testimony that showed that DaRocha's impotence could have been cured by Viagra, but he never sought treatment from a urologist. In addition, he stopped taking medicine that could have mitigated his depression, according to the defense evidence. Flynn says she will appeal the verdict. She declined to comment on settlement offers; Mazie says $75,000 was the highest offer from the doctor's insurer, Medical Inter- Insurance Exchange Group, Inc. -- By Henry Gottlieb Web Published Monday, August 21, 2000 Published in New Jersey Law Journal on: Monday, August 21, 2000