On August 23, 2023, Nicole Salerno and Tyler Fiorillo secured summary judgment on behalf of their hospital client in Orange County Supreme Court.  The case involved claims of medical malpractice and wrongful death, in which Plaintiff-Administrator alleged that the negligent conduct of the defendants during decedent’s approximate two (2) week admission to the hospital, resulted in his death well over two (2) years later.  Specifically, Plaintiff-Administrator claimed, inter alia, that defendants (the hospital and co-defendant physicians) failed to appreciate the decedent’s reduced kidney/liver function and urinary output, and negligently administered medications (Ativan and Librium).  This purportedly led to kidney damage, drug induced encephalopathy, brain damage, acute pancreatitis, delirium, pneumonia and a host of other complications, ultimately leading to his death.  The VBPNP team argued that the hospital and its employees met the requirements of the standard of care under the circumstances, and that their conduct did not constitute a proximate cause of the decedent’s injuries and ultimate death.  The team submitted decedent’s hospital records, deposition testimony, an affirmation from a general surgery expert, and decedent’s death certificate (indicating that Decedent died of “natural cause” years after Defendants’ treatment had concluded).  The Court agreed, finding that plaintiff failed to establish any triable issue of fact regarding liability for decedent’s injuries and death, specifically citing the defendants’ supporting unrefuted expert affirmation establishing that there was “no evidence to support the allegation that Ativan or Librium resulted in some long lasting damage to the [decedent].”