NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The family of Maria Ocasio was awarded $15.4 million on Wednesday by a New Haven jury in a medical malpractice case against Meriden Wallingford Anesthesia Group in Meriden.
Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC, a Connecticut-based law firm that represented the family, issued a release on Wednesday afternoon announcing the jury’s decision.
According to the law firm, Ocasio was 57 years old in 2017 when she visited Midstate Medical Center for a brief outpatient scoping procedure. The procedure required anesthesia, which was managed by the Meriden Wallingford Anesthesia Group, the release said.
Ocasio experienced a cardiorespiratory collapse at the end of the 15-minute procedure, and the medical team led by Dr. Guy Aliotta, who died in 2021, did not appropriately recognize what occurred and failed to properly resuscitate her, give her chest compressions or call a code, which the law firm said is a standard practice following such a collapse.
Ocasio suffered “catastrophic brain damage,” according to the release, and spent her final 30 days in ICU before passing away. The law firm released a joint statement from Ocasio’s sons Alex, Luis and Brian.
“Our mother had to fight all of her life, and she would have wanted us to keep fighting. We are grateful to the jury for honoring her memory with this verdict,” the statement reads. “Her seven grandkids, one of whom was born after her death, were the light of her life. We will carry her memory and fighting spirit with us for the rest of our lives.”
The release said Ocasio immigrated to the United States as a young woman searching for a better life, and her family said she was about to enter a new phase of life in which she could rest and focus on herself.
The Ocasio family was represented by Kathleen Nastri and Erik Siegel of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC. Nastri issued a statement in the release.
“Maria Ocasio should have walked out of that outpatient procedure and enjoyed many more decades with her loving family – seeing her grandchildren grow up and benefit from the good lives that she fought for them to have. Instead, she spent her final days hooked up to machines,” Nastri said, in the release. “Her sons were determined to uncover what happened and honor her memory. Today’s verdict does just that, and we’re proud to have brought some peace to the Ocasio family.”
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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