Paul M. da Costa Quoted in NJLJ Article, “$1M Settlement After Weight-Loss Surgery Death”

By Charles Toutant for New Jersey Law Journal

The suit alleged that the surgeon failed to appreciate the signs and symptoms of surgical complications and allowed the internal bleeding to continue unabated until the patient died about four hours after surgery.

The family of a New Jersey man who allegedly died due to complications from weight loss surgery has agreed to a $1 million settlement of their Passaic County medical-malpractice suit.

“There were other people there who testified that they told Dr Strain, ‘We’re fine. We can finish this case. You go see Mr. Jacobs.’ So it wasn’t like he was in there alone, the only one would could finish his surgery. He ultimately did leave the second surgery somewhat early. But the issue is, when he got to Mr. Jacobs’ bedside in the post-anesthesia care unit, despite Mr. Jacobs’ state, he determined that he was stable and that it was safe to take a wait-and-see approach,” da Costa said.

“And our whole case was no, that wasn’t a safe decision. There were nurses’ notes in that case that document very clearly that the nursing staff was very concerned with the patient’s status, that they were contacting the resident. When [the resident] was contacting Dr. Strain, it was basically Dr. Strain alone on an island in his beliefs and opinions about what what should be done with Mr. Jacobs versus, you know, basically everyone else pointing down the road of this guy should go back to the OR,” da Costa said.

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