St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan has closed, creating a quandary for hundreds of plaintiffs that have medical malpractice suits pending againt the shuttered facility, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/13/2010-05-13_st_vincents_hospital_closing_threatens_hundreds_of_medical_malpractice_lawsuits.html
These New Yorkers, an estimated 260 people, have been left in what The News calls “legal limbo” in terms of their litgation against the now bankrupt hospital.
These victims may never collect damages against St. Vincent’s, because the hospital’s assets are now in Bankruptcy Court.
The pending lawsuits include cases where babies suffered brain damage during delivery, according to The News.
St. Vincent officials decided to close the hospital, creating a furor in its Greenwich Village neighborhood, because the facility is in debt for $1 billion. The hospital then filed for bankruptcy.
The News reported that St. Vincent’s was self-insured against medical malpractice suits, and had set up a trust fund to pay for successful claims.
But that fund “is underfunded by $150 million to $250 million — and its holdings would first be doled out to priority creditors rather than potential victims,” according to The News.
A number of the malpractice suits are either in the pretrial or trial stage.
So these the unfortunate familes of victims, those who died and those still living, have no recourse, and must bide their time to see if St. Vincent’s real estate generate enough money to ultimately reach them.
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