Suffolk set to borrow $4M for settlement

Suffolk County is set to borrow $4 million to help settle a malpractice suit involving one of its health center obstetricians.

Legislators at their March meeting will consider a resolution that authorizes the borrowing, which will fund part of a $9 million settlement. The remaining $5 million will be paid through the state's Medical Indemnity fund, said Ways & Means Committee chairman Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip).

Plaintiffs Maria Centeno and Julio Zhumi alleged that negligent prenatal care at Suffolk's South Brookhaven Family Health Center West in Patchogue led to their daughter, Nayeli, being born in 2005 with severe complications including cerebral palsy. They sued their health center obstetrician, Lawrence Minei, the county and a physician at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, where the baby was born.

Last fall, State Supreme Court Justice Peter H. Mayer threw out the action against the hospital doctor, but denied Minei's request for dismissal.

Minei has said his treatment of Centeno and her unborn child didn't depart from accepted medical practices, and that nothing in the course of prenatal treatment indicated potential health concerns, according to court documents. His attorney, Brian Davey, declined to comment this week.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Dennis Breitner, did not return a call for comment. But in court filings the parents allege that doctors in the case failed to "timely treat fetal distress" and to "timely perform a cesarean section" on the mother.

County spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter said Minei remains employed by the county as a health center administrator.

In 2005, Suffolk agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a suit alleging that Minei's delivery of a baby girl in 2000 led to permanent nerve damage to her arm, known as Erb's Palsy. An unrelated 2004 malpractice suit against Minei and Brookhaven Memorial Hospital was dismissed.