The family of a woman who died after routine surgery has agreed to a $3.35 million settlement of her Middlesex County medical malpractice suit, Holland v. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Somerset. The settlement was approved in Superior Court in November 2020.
According to the suit, Maria Joyce Holland, 48, was on life support after receiving an excessive dose of an opioid drug.
She was admitted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset in Somerville in January 2016 for removal of an ovarian cyst. Holland was given a combination of drugs before the operation, including Fentanyl. After the procedure was complete, she was given an additional dose of Fentanyl because she complained of pain, said Robert Adinolfi of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge, who handled the case along with the firm's Peter Chamas.
Upon receiving the Fentanyl, she exhibited low blood pressure and no oxygen to the brain, said Adinolfi. Her family decided to remove her from life support eight days later.
Holland's estate filed a suit against the hospital, anesthesiologist William Tronolone and others, in Middlesex County Superior Court in 2016.
The suit claimed the defendants were negligent for administering Holland an excessive dose of Fentanyl because she was allergic to that class of drugs, according to Adinolfi. The defendants claimed Holland might have died from a blood clot coming from her brain, and there was no autopsy, Adinolfi said.
The matter settled following mediation with Kenneth Grispin, a retired Superior Court judge now with Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins in Springfield, and a settlement conference with Judge Jamie Happas, the Middlesex vicinage's presiding civil judge. Robert Wood Johnson, Tronolone and his medical practice, Anesthesia Consultants and Physicians, agreed to the $3.35 million settlement in October 2020.
On Nov. 10, 2020, Superior Court Judge Lisa Vignuolo approved the accord, which paid $882,984 in fees and $68,061 in expenses to Gill and Chamas, and $3,500 in fees to Ronald Kercado, the attorney who recommended allocation of the settlement. Of the remaining funds, $1.44 million, or 60%, went to Holland's widower and administrator of her estate, Darren Holland, while her daughter, Alexis, and her son, Tyler, each received 20%, or $479,090 each, according to electronic court documents.
Robert Wood Johnson's lawyer, Raymond Fleming of Rosenberg, Jacobs, Heller & Fleming in Morris Plains, and the lawyer for Tronolone and his practice, Thomas Conlon of Orlovsky Moody Schaff & Conlon in West Long Branch, did not respond to calls from a reporter about the case.
— Charles Toutant
Charles Toutant
Charles Toutant is a litigation writer for the New Jersey Law Journal.