Anderson v. Somberg

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Pashman, J.

These negligence-products liability actions had their inception in a surgery performed in 1967 on the premises of defendant St. James Hospital (Hospital). Plaintiff was undergoing a laminectomy, a back operation, performed by defendant Dr. Somberg. During the course of the procedure, the tip or cup of an angulated pituitary rongeur, a forceps-like instrument, broke off while the tool was being manipulated in plaintiff’s spinal canal. The surgeon attempted to retrieve the metal but was unable to do so. After repeated failure in that attempt,…