An anesthesiologist medical group has settled for $1 million its part in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Bill Paxton’s family over the actor’s death in 2017 following an allegedly botched heart surgery.
According to court documents filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorneys for Dr. Moody Makar and General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership moved for approval of the deal and sought to dismiss claims against them. Makar was the anesthesiologist for Paxton’s heart operation.
General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership maintained that it bears no responsibility in Paxton’s death. It claimed in court filings that “its personnel complied with the standard of care insofar as their involvement in the care and treatment of James Paxton, and nothing their personnel did or didn’t do caused or contributed to his death.”
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The group said that it settled its liability in the case to “reasonably compensate plaintiffs and avoid exposing defendant to an expensive and time consuming litigation.”
The actor, who appeared in Twister, Aliens and Apollo 13, died in 2017 of a stroke after a heart surgery. His widow and children sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center alleging its staff negligently performed the operation, which they argued was unconventional and shouldn’t have been done in the first place. They also claimed that that the hospital tried to cover up its negligence by not performing an autopsy and lying to the company hired for the cremation and memorial service that the family didn’t want one.
The claims against General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership included wrongful death, survival action and breach of fiduciary duty.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, who performed the operation, remain in the case. An L.A. judge ruled in January that Paxton’s family can seek punitive damages for claims that the hospital engaged in a cover-up to conceal its negligence.
Trial is slated to start Sept. 19.
Attorneys for General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership and Paxton’s family didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
