A $950,000 medical malpractice trial verdict in which a Queens County jury found that the defendant departed from accepted practice in failing to timely and properly perform surgery on the plaintiff’s torn ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb.  As a result of the delay in performing surgery, the plaintiff developed a painful condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).  The defendant orthopedic surgeon argued that the plaintiff did not have instability in his thumb that would require surgery and that the CRPS was caused as a result of the initial trauma that caused the ligament injury.   Based upon the plaintiff’s testimony and the records of the plaintiff’s subsequent hand surgeon, the jury found that the plaintiff did, in fact, require surgery and that the delay in performing surgery was a substantial factor in causing him to suffer from CRPS.  Plaintiff’s orthopedic surgery expert testified that the CRPS was caused by the delay in performing surgery because the passage of time, among other things, allowed scar tissue to develop around nerves in the plaintiff’s thumb that had to be dissected during the eventual surgery.