SYLLABUS

(This syllabus is not part of the opinion of the Court. It has been prepared by the Office of the Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the Supreme Court. Please note that, in the interests of brevity, portions of any opinion may not have been summarized).

Kathleen Bender v. Richard Adelson, M.D. et als (A-37-05)

Argued March 20, 2006 -- Decided July 19, 2006

ZAZZALI, J., writing for a majority of the Court.

In this appeal, the Court addresses the propriety of comments made by counsel for Kathleen Bender (Bender) during summation and whether the trial court abused its discretion when it barred the testimony and submission of three defense experts’ reports.

After experiencing back and jaw pain, forty-three-year-old Robert Bender (decedent), in March 1999, sought treatment from Dr. Richard Adelson, an interventional cardiologist. Dr. Adelson determined that decedent required cardiac catheterization, an invasive diagnostic procedure used to evaluate the status of a patient’s arteries. Decedent was admitted to Jersey Shore Medical Center where Dr. Adelson performed the procedure with the assistance of Dr. Maurice Weiss. During the procedure, the doctors noticed clots in the right and left arteries of the heart and determined that a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was needed. PCI involves the use of angioplasty and stent placement to unclog the arteries. Prior to and during the PCI procedure, decedent was given anti-coagulants used to decrease the blood’s clotting. Complications during the PCI procedure necessitated decedent’s undergoing open-heart surgery, which was unsuccessful and resulted in his death.