Case over

Update: Kidney damage claim settled

By David Baker
Posted March 29. 2015
225 words

A lawsuit in which a woman claims she suffered permanent damage to her kidneys has been settled a month before a scheduled trial.

The lawsuit, named physicians Axel Herrmannsdoerfer and Antonio Gregorian. According to the complaint, in April 2012, Susan J. Birch of Saratoga County went to an urgent care facility operated by Seton Health Systems in Clifton Park, where she was prescribed the antibiotic Zithromax by the defendant Herrmannsdoerfer.

Herrmannsdoerfer, the suit says, knew or should have known that Birch was allergic to the medication

The following day Birch called the facility and described her symptoms to the other defendant physician, Antonio Gregorian.  Gregorian then changed Birch’s prescription to Amoxicillin but allegedly did not advise Birch to go to the facility or any other emergency facility for an evaluation of her condition.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2013. An exclusive story about it was posted here on June 14, 2014. Like many lawsuits that begin with vigorous denials of liability, it ended last week with a settlement just before it would have gone to a jury. It was scheduled to go to trial in state Supreme Court in Rensselaer County on April 27.

Also named as defendants were Seton Health Systems Inc. and St. Peter’s Health Partners.

Birch was represented by the Albany law firm Powers & Santola. Representing the defendants were Thorn, Gershon, Tymann & Bonanni.
***