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Our View: Take us out to the old ballgame

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Court Briefs

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; After an amended complaint filed last month suggested the physician who accidentally caused a death was improperly credentialed and mentally unfit, he has filed a response.</p><p>Bernard Ford, 62, died in April 2016, eight days after Dr. Noel Estioko ordered an emergency intubation of the Nanticoke man during a procedure at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, where Estioko was formerly employed.</p><p>Ford suffered from a skeletal disorder, and his neck was broken during the procedure, which eventually led to his death.</p><p>His son, James Ford, filed the lawsuit in November 2016. But in March, his attorneys at the Anzalone Law Offices alleged additional incompetence, claiming the hospital should have known Estioko had not completed an emergency room residency and was &#8220;never able to pass&#8221; a certification test.</p><p>This week, Estioko filed a response through his attorneys at the Perry Law Firm in Scranton, claiming the estate&#8217;s suit doesn&#8217;t make a good case to warrant Estioko paying punitive damages, asking for all such language to be dismissed.</p><p>According to his filing, Estioko claims he was properly credentialed, saying he received his credentials in 2013, three years before Ford&#8217;s death. The filing also says issues of failing tests had &#8220;long since passed&#8221; by the time he treated Ford, and the claims of &#8220;improper credentialing&#8221; cannot serve as a basis of the suit.</p><p>Estioko also takes aim at another aspect of the complaint. At the time of Ford&#8217;s death, Estioko was in the process of being let go from the hospital and had even claimed he was unfit to stand trial in another medical malpractice suit against him due to his &#8220;unfocused mental state.&#8221;</p><p>But the former physician brushes this off, too, saying there was nothing to support the allegation that he was incompetent to treat patients.</p><p>On Thursday, the Anzalone Law Offices filed a brief response, flatly denying the conclusions of Estioko&#8217;s filing. However, the filing notes the court previously denied Estioko&#8217;s similar objections to a previous version of the amended complaint. </p><p>Patrick Doyle, the Wilkes-Barre attorney representing the Ford estate, told the Times Leader the case will be going to trial Feb. 11, 2019.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre General Hospital </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_web1_TTL010518WBGeneral.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre General Hospital </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Former Wilkes-Barre General physician files objections to lawsuit