Doe v. Doe

Doe v Doe (tried in 2022) was a case involving an outpatient suicide. The decedent’s family brought a civil action against the decedent’s primary-care physician, an internist, for prescribing psychiatric medication over an extended time without appropriate monitoring, including failure to recommend psychiatric referral as appropriate. Dr. Bursztajn was retained by plaintiffs’ counsel to evaluate negligence and causation. Based on the forensic neuropsychiatric autopsy he conducted, Dr. Bursztajn opined that the defendant physician’s actions were negligent and that this negligence caused the decedent’s death by suicide. The jury found for the plaintiffs.