An attorney for 25 years, Cullen McKinney focuses on medical malpractice defense. In his role as defense counsel, Cullen McKinney was involved in the 2014 medical mal-practice case, in which the plaintiff demanded $466,000 from defendant on a claim that defendant’s negligence caused his kidney damage.
The plaintiff had a long history of back pain. After trying several treatment modalities, he opted for surgery. He went to an orthopedic spine surgeon for artificial lumbar disc replacement surgery.
On the day of the surgery, the general surgeon made a cut in defendant’s abdomen and proceeded to retract the vessels in the abdominal cavity, making way for the orthopedic surgeon to replace the disc. During surgery, the orthopedic surgeon noticed a partial transection on the patient’s left ureter. A urologist was consulted. He confirmed the transection and repaired it.
After surgery, plaintiff claimed in court that defendant’s negligence during retraction caused the cut on his ureter, occasioning kidney damage. The defense asserted that the injury was not caused by the defendant but rather by the orthopedic surgeon, who was not named a defendant in the case.
The defense also claimed that the cut on the patient’s ureter was a known risk in such surgeries, and that the resulting kidney damage was not because of the cut since it healed 51 days later. The jury issued a no-cause-of-action verdict in favor of the defendant.
