Expert Witness Blog
Plaintiff filed suit against defendants related to a medical malpractice claim. Plaintiff hired a Cardiology Expert Witness to provide expert testimony. Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the expert’s testimony should be excluded. The court denied the motion for summary judgment and allowed the expert to testify.
Facts: This case (Junger, et al v. Singh, et al – United States District Court – Western District of New York – August 8th, 2019) involves a claim of medical malpractice and wrongful death. The plaintiffs’ decedent died after he was released from the hospital. The defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment. Dr. Kothari, of of the defendants argues that he is entitled to summary judgment because plaintiffs’ Cardiology Expert Witness Dr. Jon Resar is not qualified to render an opinion about Dr. Kothari’s care and because Dr. Resar’s opinions are not supported by the facts in the record or have been recanted by Dr. Resar.
Discussion: Dr. Resar is a board-certified interventional cardiologist and is the director of the Adult Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Resar, opines that 1) Dr. Kothari did not order a CT angiography; 2) Dr. Kothari’s reasons for not ordering a CT angiography were not valid, and 3) Dr. Kothari’s decision to prescribe Xarelto was a deviation from the standard of care.
Dr. Kothari claims that Dr. Resar’s testimony should be excluded because Dr. Resar is an interventional cardiologist and Dr. Kothari is a clinical cardiologist and is thus not qualified to testify regarding the care provided by Dr. Kothari. Dr. Kothari contends that Dr. Resar is not qualified to evaluate echocardiogaphy.
The court opines that Dr. Kothari’s argument lacks merit. Dr. Resar states that he practices cardiology on a routine basis and interprets and uses echocardiography in his daily practice. In addition, Dr. Reasar also states that he has previously been qualified to serve as an expert witness regarding the actions of a non-invasive cardiologist. The court opines that this is sufficient to establish Dr. Resar as qualified to opine as an expert witness in this case.
In addition, Dr. Kothari states that Dr. Resar’s expert witness report is unreliable and irrelevant. First, Dr. Kothari states that Dr. Resat is not correct when he states that Dr. Kothari misread the echocardiogram. Second, Dr. Resar recanted his opinion that Dr. Kothari should have ordered a CT scan. Third, Dr. Resar’s opinion that a CT scan should have been ordered otherwise is not supported by the facts in the record.
The court dismisses all of these arguments and states that Dr. Resar’s expert opinions will be allowed.
Conclusion: The motion to exclude the expert witness opinions of Dr. Resar is denied.