PHV Stephen A. Ryan | Chair, Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Liability

Steve is a member of MDWC&G's Healthcare Liability Practice Group and the Chair of the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Litigation Practice Group.

An attorney with over 30 years of medical malpractice litigation experience, Steve has tried nearly 200 medical malpractice cases to verdict and participated in many arbitrations and mediations. In his first year with MDWCG, Steve picked 23 juries and tried 13 medical malpractice cases to verdict, all but one for the defense.

In 2002, The United States Supreme Court upheld his victory in Pappas v. U.S. Healthcare, 724 A.2d 889 (Pa. 1998) (Pappas I) 768 A.2d 1069 (Pa. 2001) (Pappas II), a landmark case involving liability of managed care organizations for medical decisions.

As Chair of the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Litigation Practice Group, Steve defends drug and medical device manufacturers and also monitors these cases and all birth injury defense cases firm-wide. Steve also participates in marketing activities, in-house educational seminars, writes articles, and speaks on recent developments in the law.  

After serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph L. McGlynn, Jr., in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania following graduation, Steve joined a small defense firm where he focused on medical malpractice defense litigation. He helped grow the firm to over 100 lawyers and over the next 14 years became a member of the firm's Executive Committee. During his tenure at that firm he handled long-term care litigation, medical device and pharmaceutical liability litigation, professional liability insurance coverage, medical staff and peer review matters, and bio-ethical issues. His malpractice defense caseload evolved into one of primarily catastrophic injury cases (obstetrical, neonatal, neurosurgical, neurological and anesthesia complications, etc.), and he handled celebrated cases involving surgical mix-ups, crossed oxygen and nitrous oxide ER lines, and a baby stolen from a hospital. Steve developed his skills defending cases involving neurologically impaired infants.

In 1992, Steve established his own boutique firm in suburban Philadelphia which grew over the next five years and then brought his practice to Marshall Dennehey.

Steve has served as local and national counsel in mass tort drug litigation, including PPA (Phenylpropanolamine), hormone therapy and the Ephedra Multi-District Litigation. He serves as Regional Birth Injury Panel Counsel for a major insurer. He has completed coursework in basic and advanced mediation techniques, was a part of the Drexel University College of Medicine's Inaugural Panel of Mediators, and serves regularly as a mediator in medical malpractice cases.

Significant Representative Matters

• Defended defunct manufacturer of ephedra containing dietary supplement (whose only asset was a multi-million dollar insurance policy) in a trial in Gainesville, Florida, on a cause brought by a severely disabled young man who suffered a massive stroke, allegedly due to ingestion of our product.  Primary defense was on causation, but obtained a no negligence finding as well.
  

• Defended hospital in 17 death cases arising from the crossing of nitrous oxide and oxygen lines in a new Emergency Department, whereby oxygen outlets delivered nitrous oxide for six months. Worked for two years to create a consensus among multiple defendants as to case values and allocation. Managed to settle all 17 without any discovery being conducted by Plaintiffs, for a total of $2 million, of which hospital paid 31%.
  

• Defended hospital in case involving late night vaginal delivery by a resident of a breech presentation of a presumably non-viable gestation, where attending physician did not come in to deliver baby, and child was born alive and survived with global retardation, blindness, spastic quadriplegia and seizure disorder. Parents rejected multi-million dollar offer, and jury returned defense verdict after two days of deliberations.
  

• Defended hospital in case alleging failure to transfer to appropriate tertiary facility for rapid decompression of epidural spinal abscess. HMO had refused to authorize transfer to regional spinal cord injury center and, when joined by hospital as additional defendant, invoked ERISA preemption to dismiss joinder at trial. Settled case for hospital, preserving appellate issue, and obtained reversal in Pennsylvania Superior Court. Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed and HMO petitioned for Certiorari. Met with U.S. Justice and Labor Department appellate litigators, persuaded them to file Amicus brief in support of our position, and briefed the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition to the petition. U.S. Supreme Court denied Certiorari, letting stand the first state case in the country to recognize that ERISA does not protect "benefit determinations" which amount to negligent medical care decisions.
  

• Defense verdict in Philadelphia case involving 49-year-old man whose cerebral aneurysm was clipped, and the clip slipped, leaving him severely brain damaged and living in a group home with a normal life expectancy and over $10,000 per month in expenses. Interventional cerebrovascular neurosurgeon was sole defendant and his excess carrier was insolvent. Attempts to negotiate a high-low agreement were unsuccessful. Case nominated for Defense Research Institute's "Defense Verdict of the Year."
  

• Defended manufacturer of dietary supplement containing Ephedra in over 60 state and federal cases nationwide involving stroke, myocardial infarction, or sudden cardiac death. Worked with world class medical experts to develop alternate causation theories and presented the Defense Counsel Committee's cardiac electrophysiology expert at the Ephedra MDL Daubert hearing in U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. Succeeded in precluding Plaintiffs' generic causation experts from opining that Ephedra lengthens the Q-T interval or exacerbates "Long Q-T Syndrome," thereby causing sudden cardiac death.