FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Lucy Rosen
DATE: October 20, 2003 (516) 222-0236

Duffy, Duffy and Burdo has won a $3.1 Million medical malpractice verdict against Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens in the case of a stroke victim, Joan Giles.

James Wilkins, a partner in the Uniondale-based firm Duffy Duffy, handled the case on behalf of the Baldwin resident.

Giles, who was 57 years old when the incident occured in 2000, came to the emergency room at Jamaica Hospital with what attorneys described as the warning signs of a stroke.

She was not give TPA, a drug that Duffy Duffy argued could have prevented her from having a stroke.

The 287-bed hospital, founded in 1891, argued that administering the drug in these situations was not in its "standard of care" for use in preventing strokes.

Giles suffered a stroke, impairing the use of her right arm and right leg, which prompted the litigation.

Post trial motions are pending, but the verdict had not been appealed at presstime.