Jury awards judge's widow, children $7.6M from Albany Med in wrongful death lawsuit
ALBANY— A civil jury in state Supreme Court took less than two hours Wednesday to unanimously find that Albany Medical Center Hospital negligently botched a heart emergency that took the life of Court of Claims Judge Michael Melkonian in 2019.
The jury voted 6-0 to rule in favor of the plaintiff, the late judge’s wife, Caroline, who filed the wrongful death and negligence suit. Jurors awarded the judge’s wife and two children a combined $7.6 million.
Michael Melkonian, 55, of West Sand Lake, an acting Supreme Court justice, married father of two teenage children and a judge since 2008, died on Oct. 17, 2019, after arriving at the hospital with chest pains. He made a call to his cardiologist eight minutes before arriving at Albany Med saying he feared he was experiencing a heart attack, and he was told to go to the emergency room.
Within a half-hour of arriving, Melkonian died of cardiac arrest. He had been left alone and unmonitored in a hospital room for 23 minutes, John H. Fisher, the Kingston-based attorney for the judge’s widow, told jurors in closing arguments on Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Jury-weighs-9-7M-negligence-claim-in-judge-s-17212551.php?IPID=Times-Union-HP-CP-spotlight