One Year Ago Today (November 4, 2023)…A tentative settlement has been reached in a wrongful death/negligence lawsuit brought by the adult twin daughters of an MTV producer, who alleged a doctor negligently performed gall bladder surgery that resulted in their mother’s 2019 death.
An attorney for Nicole and Nila Sawyer filed court papers Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang notifying her of a “conditional” accord with Dr. Matthew Lublin and that they expect to bring a request for dismissal by Dec. 30.
No terms were revealed.
The surgery on the 57-year-old woman, Linda Sawyer, occurred on Feb. 5, 2019. She died five days later.
The veteran producer at MTV and HBO hosted the popular iHeart Radio podcast “Sleuth: True Crime in Real Time.” She started at MTV during the music video channel’s earliest days as an executive assistant to founder Bob Pittman.
Sawyer’s daughters maintained that Lublin was negligent in performing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and umbilical hernia repair procedure, resulting in a bowel perforation. The daughters further maintained the medical standard of care was breached by the failure to diagnose and treat the bowel perforation in a timely manner.
The Sawyer daughters maintain that they have suffered from the loss of care, comfort, society and support of their mother.
In their court papers, Lublin’s attorneys stated that Linda Sawyer developed multisystem organ failure as well as rapidly progressive severe septic shock and metabolic acidosis. She was monitored by multiple physicians, including Lublin, and she died the same morning that her relatives agreed to transition her to comfort care, according to Lublin’s lawyers’ court papers.
In March 2021, the Sawyer children reached a $27,500 settlement with Lublin’s co-defendant, Specialty Surgical Center of Beverly Hills. The plaintiffs alleged the facility, which denied liability, failed to provide their mother with adequate post-operative care.