POOR POSITIONING? A patient blames the injuries he sustained during spinal surgery on poor positioning.

A hospital and its staff are not liable for injuries a patient sustained as a result of poor positioning if they're operating under the orders of an independent physician, according to a recent court decision out of New York.

In the case, a New York man claimed that both The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and the surgeon who performed the procedure were liable after he was allegedly left with severe injuries caused by poor patient positioning. A lower court dismissed the case against the hospital, saying it could not be held liable since staffers were simply working on the orders of the surgeon. The New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division affirmed that ruling this week.

According to court documents, Jerome Bialick sued the hospital and Martin Camins, MD, alleging that he sustained a severe bilateral brachial plexopathy after being improperly taped to the operating room bed before undergoing a multi-level laminectomy. Brachial plexopathy occurs when there is damage to the brachial plexus, an area on each side of the neck where nerve roots from the spinal cord split into each arm's nerves. In his complaint, Mr. Bialick alleges that the tape caused "excessive tension," leading to the injuries.

However the hospital argued, and the courts agreed, that the hospital's staff members were working under Dr. Camins's supervision and carrying out his orders for positioning the patient. Since the positioning did not require independent medical judgment from the employees, the hospital could not be held liable for any injury caused by patient positioning, the judges wrote in their opinion.

The court dismissed Mount Sinai as a defendant in the case, though litigation is still pending between Mr. Bialick and Dr. Camins, according to Mr. Bialick's attorney. Dr. Camins, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai, did not immediately return requests for comment from Outpatient Surgery.

Mr. Bialick's representation declined to comment on the case further. An attorney representing The Mount Sinai Hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kendal Gapinski