Case closed - (Reggie Lewis case ends)

["Belanger,Roger" <rbelange@foxboro.com>]

FYI,

Finally and mercifully it ends!

RIP Reggie!


Roger



Case closed
Seven years later, Reggie Lewis case ends

Jul 18, 2000 8:47 a.m. ET

Associated Press 

BOSTON - The malpractice case stemming from the 1993 death of Reggie Lewis
finally ended when a judge dismissed an appeal by the wife of the former
Boston Celtics captain.
Donna Lewis-Harris missed a filing deadline to continue her appeal of the
May jury verdict that cleared Dr. Gilbert Mudge Jr. of negligence.

Judge Thayer Fremont-Smith granted a request Monday by Mudge's lawyer to
dismiss the appeal, and Lewis-Harris's lawyer offered no opposition.

Fremont-Smith's ruling came 10 days shy of the seventh anniversary of
Lewis's death. He collapsed while shooting baskets at a Brandeis gym.

Harris-Lewis accused Mudge, Lewis' chief cardiologist at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, of failing to diagnose her husband with the heart condition the
led to his death.

A first trial ended last year in a hung jury.

Reached at his office Monday, Neil Rossman, the widow's lawyer, told The
Boston Globe he had no comment. Mudge's lawyer, William Dailey Jr. did not
return the Globe's phone call.

Last May, Rossman filed a notice of appeal, a required first step toward the
state Appeals Court. The next step would have been for Rossman to order a
transcript of the trial, which ended May 8 after four weeks of testimony.

Lewis was 27 when he first collapsed during an NBA playoff game on April 29,
1993. After a "dream team" of doctors diagnosed him with a potentially fatal
heart problem, he walked out of New England Baptist Hospital and transferred
care to Mudge.

The cardiologist said Lewis had a "normal athlete's heart," and diagnosed a
benign fainting disorder. Two months later, Lewis dropped dead.