Deadlocked Jury in Olesky Malpractice Case

Christina Cole

Contributor

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A Collier County jury was deadlocked today after 2.5 days of deliberation in a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit involves two local physicians and a physician assistant in the death of Ann Olesky, before her death in 2004.

The jury of four women and two men were sent back into deliberations by the Judge.

The defendants are Dr. Dennis Stapleton, a cardiothoracic surgeon who performed mitral and aortic valve replacement surgery on Olesky, and Dr. Jane Silverstein, a cardiologist who was filling in for Olesky's regular physician at Naples Community Hospital. The hospital was not named in the lawsuit. A third defendant is Joseph Deily, a physician's assistant to Stapleton.

The plaintiff's attorney argued during a two-month trial that the defendants failed to detect Olesky took a turn for the worse and failed to order tests that could have detected bleeding in her heart, which led to it being squeezed.
The defense argued she could not have been detected or treated.

Prior to the judge sending the jury back to reconsider the deadlock, the forewoman told the judge that they had deadlocked on Monday and agreed to sleep on it and start again today.