Manhattan Jury Awards $4,873,703 to 52 year old landscaper, Robert Wyble, and his wife, Zaida Wyble, against Dr. Dale Lange, Chief of Neurology at Hospital for Special Surgery for wrong diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis. Partner, Richard Gurfein tried the Wybles’ case in Supreme Court, New York County and took the verdict on March 18, 2014.  Reported in the Daily News and WCBS-TV.

Mr. Wyble was referred to Dr. Lange in May of 2005 for complaints of falling down without reason and being able to get right back up as though nothing had happened.  Dr. Lange ordered blood tests and a CT scan of Mr. Wyble’s chest, but all the tests were negative.  Nevertheless, Dr. Lange told Mr. Wyble he had Myasthenia Gravis.  This disease of neuromuscular transmission occurs when the body’s own immune system attacks the receptor cells of the muscle and prevents the muscle from getting the signal from the brain to contract or relax.

Dr. Lange started treatment for Myasthenia Gravis in July of 2005 with medication.  By the fall of 2006 he recommended a thymectomy.  The Thymus gland is involved in the body’s immune system.  In the first dozen years of life it seeds cells throughout the body that will produce antibodies to fight off infection throughout life.  After that time it starts to atrophy and ceases to function.  In Myasthenia Gravis, it is believed the Thymus gland reactivates and starts producing these antibodies that attack the receptor cells of the muscles.  Another way the Thymus gland is involved in Myasthenia Gravis is when the Thymus gland develops a tumor.  Testing on Mr. Wyble never found any antibodies or any tumor of thymus gland.

The Thymectomy was done in January 2007.  The surgeon sawed through the breast bone and removed the remnants of the thymus as well as fat.  Then wired the breast bone back together in the same way they do for open heart surgery.  Following the thymectomy Mr. Wyble’s medications were increased.  He was also put on Prednisone and in September, 2007 he was started on biweekly plasma exchanges.  This went on for another two years until Dr. Lange left Mt. Sinai Hospital without telling his patient. Mr. Wyble then found another neurologist, Dr. Betty Mintz

Dr. Betty Mintz agreed to take on Mr. Wyble as a patient.  From the very first visit Dr. Mintz was skeptical about the diagnosis and by November, 2009 when Mr. Wyble suffered an infection of the port for the plasma exchanges, Dr. Mintz was convinced he never had Myasthenia Gravis.  She discontinued all the medication and stopped the plasma exchanges.  She diagnosed Mr. Wyble with Cataplexy which explained the falling down.  She prescribed the correct medicine for that condition and he no longer falls.

The trial lasted three weeks and Dr. Lange continued to maintain he was right in his diagnosis.  The jury disagreed.  They awarded Mr. Wyble $3.5 million dollars for past and future pain and suffering plus the hospital bill of $373,708.  They awarded Mrs. Wyble, who, after six and a half years of being Mr. Wyble’s nurse and not his wife, filed for divorce, $1,000,000 for her loss of services and consortium claim.  The total verdict was $4,873,703.

On Thursday evening March 3, 2011, a New York County jury reached a verdict in the case of Ernest Lewis, an infant, by his mother, Brenda Lewis against the New York City Transit Authority, MABSTOA and Courtney Thompson, Index no. 101833/07. The four man, two woman jury awarded the 13 year old (now 18) plaintiff $6,783,202.90 for being run over by the BX19 bus at 145th Street and Convent Avenue on November 19, 2005.

After a church service at the First Calvary Baptist Church on 148th Street, Mrs. Lewis and her son Ernest were on their way home. They were trying to catch the BX19 bus at the 145th Street at Convent Ave. bus stop. As Ernest was running alongside the bus he began hitting the side of the bus, which was not moving, to alert the driver of their presence. As he got in front of the middle wheels of this 60-foot long articulating bus, he tripped and his legs fell under the bus. An eyewitness, Alphonza Elliott, testified at the trial, that it was just about the time the child fell that the driver started the bus. The middle tire rode over his legs. Police officers called to the scene noted a tire tread impression in his leg

The driver claimed that he was aware the child was running for the bus, but didn’t see him when he was near the middle of the bus and pulled into the intersection. He glanced at his right side mirror and saw a shadow on the ground and stopped the bus in the middle of the intersection to investigate. He found Ernest behind the middle tire. There was a lot of blood. He called the TA from the phone on his bus, while the eye witness called 911 on his cell phone.

The trial, which started on February 22, 2011 before Justice Geoffrey Wright in Supreme Court, New York County, ended this evening with the jury verdict. The jury awarded Ernest $2,500,000.00 for past pain and suffering, $283,202.09 for past medical expenses and $4,000,000 over 10 years for future pain and suffering.

Ernest sustained a major degloving injury to his right lower leg tearing off skin, muscle and tendons and exposing the bones, fracture of the distal fibula, avulsion of the distal tibia and a fracture of the left calcaneus. Ernest was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where skilled trauma specialists treated him for 3 1/2 weeks, saving his leg. He was taken to the OR on 8 separate occasions for placement of pins and an external fixator to hold the fractured fibula in place, placement of a rod in the fibula (permanent) to align the bone fragments, a syndesmotic screw to realign the spacing between the tibia and fibula and an 8 1/2 hour surgery to harvest muscle from his abdomen to transplant into his leg and to harvest skin from hi s thigh to graft over the transplanted muscle. He also had a cast on his left foot. After 3 1/ 2 weeks at Children’s hospital he was transferred to St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Ossining, New York on December 15, 2005. He remained there until February 24, 2006 making periodic visits to his doctors at Presbyterian. The cast on the left leg was removed on January 5, 2006 and the external fixator was removed on February 14, 2006.

He continued to receive nursing care and physical therapy at home until May, 2006 when he finally returned to his 8th grade class at St. Dominic’s School. Ernest is presently in his freshman year at Berkley College in Manhattan expecting to earn a degree in business in four years. Ernest and Mrs. Lewis were represented by Richard A. Gurfein, Esq. of Gurfein Douglas LLP in Manhattan. The Transit Authority and the other defendants were represented by Lynne Troy Henderson, Esq. of Wallace Gossett’s office.

Comment: The Bus Operator knew the child was alongside his bus. He should never have moved the bus until the child was out of the danger zone.

A State Supreme Court jury accepted the contention that injuries suffered in a roadway accident led an 11-year-old Bronx boy into a life of crime and yesterday awarded him $950,000 in an injury suit.

“Perhaps this kid would never have gone bad,” said attorney Richard Gurfein.

In the 10 years since the 1973 accident, Kevin Alleyne, now 21, amassed a record of seven convictions including armed robbery. In fact, he is currently being held on Rikers Island on another armed robbery charge. Alleyne was allowed to go to court yesterday, accompanied by two armed guards, to hear the jury announce the huge award against Con Ed and two contractors, Interboro Surface Co. And Abbott Breaking Corp.

Elated, he turned to his lawyer and said, “Now at least, I can get the therapy they’ve been saying I need.” According to his lawyers, the physical injuries and scar Alleyne suffered as a child were only part of the damage. He was also scarred psychologically, they said.

“Perhaps this kid would never have gone bad,” said attorney Richard Gurfein.

-David Seifman – NEW YORK POST