A Florida circuit court has cleared a Sarasota, Fla.-based physician assistant of liability in a medical malpractice trial over the death of a patient, Courtroom View Network reported Aug. 25.
Charles Kayat, the physician assistant, was treating patient Jacqueline Dinallo in 2018 for a severe cough and shortness of breath before her death from a blood clot.
Ms. Dinallo's family claims Mr. Kayat did not properly refer her to treatment that could have prevented her death, alleging the symptoms that Ms. Dinallo suffered should have prompted Mr. Kayat to send her to more extensive care.
The defense argued that Mr. Kayat appropriately treated her symptoms, saying that the pulmonary embolism was "unpredictable and unforeseeable," the report said.
Mr. Kayat's supervising physician Alka Nai, MD, and primary care servicer Gulf Coast HMA Physician Management were also named defendants and were cleared along Mr. Kayat.