On Jan. 20, 2012, plaintiff Richard Yeager, 84, experienced syncope, or loss of consciousness, while driving. He subsequently went off the road and hit an irrigation pedestal. Yeager previously received a pacemaker in July 1996, after experiencing bradycardia (an abnormally slow heart rate) and resulting syncope. The pacemaker was then replaced in 2005 because the battery was running low, but it had not been replaced since. Yeager then became a patient of cardiologist Stanley Kawanishi, M.D., an employee of HealthCare Partners Medical Group, in 2006. Kawanishi later became aware that Yeager’s pacemaker battery status was at the elective replacement indicator in around August 2010 and began monitoring the pacemaker. Yeager claimed that because Kawanishi was aware that the pacemaker battery as soon to be depleted, Kawanishi should have replaced it. Yeager further claimed that failing to replace the battery caused him to experience syncope in 2012 and crash. Yeager sued Kawanishi, HealthCare Partners Medical Group Inc., and HealthCare Partners Holdings, LLC. Yeager alleged that the defendants’ failure to replace the pacemaker battery constituted medical malpractice. Yeager claimed that his syncope on Jan. 20, 2012, resulted from bradycardia and his non-functioning pacemaker’s failure to control it. In support of that claim, he noted that, when he was taken to a hospital after the accident, he experienced several instances of asystole (absence of cardiac activity) lasting about nine seconds each. He also noted that Kawanishi was subsequently consulted and he replaced the pacemaker. Thus, Yeager claimed that Kawanishi’s failure to replace the pacemaker’s battery caused him to suffer bradycardia and syncope, resulting in the crash. The plaintiff’s cardiac electrophysiology expert opined that, under the standard of care, Kawanishi should have told Yeager as early as Aug. 16, 2010, that, in order to protect him from bradycardia and syncope, the pacemaker had to be replaced. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Kawanishi did not give Yeager the proper information to enable him to give his informed consent about whether to have the pacemaker replaced. However, Judge Michael Vicencia declined to submit the issue of informed consent to the jury. Plaintiff’s counsel further contended that HealthCare Partners was negligent for poor recordkeeping and for allowing technicians to reprogram the pacemaker in 2010 without Kawanishi’s order. Counsel noted that Kawanishi’s signature dates on some of Yeager’s electronic medical records were late. Defense counsel contended that, when Kawanishi saw the pacemaker battery was running low in August 2010, he tried to preserve the battery life by reprogramming it to go into ventricular pace mode at a lower threshold and turning off the atrium sensing feature. Counsel also contended that because Yeager was pacing less than one percent of the time between December 2010 and March 2011, and was therefore not pacemaker-dependent, Kawanishi gave Yeager two options: One was to have the pacemaker replaced and the other was for Yeager to be followed clinically for symptoms of lightheadedness, shortness of breath, fatigue, and syncope to see if it needed to be replaced. Kawanishi maintained that he explained the risks and benefits of both options and that Yeager chose not to replace the pacemaker. He also testified that although he was late in signing some the electronic medical records, the records were complete and accurate at the time they were created by him, during Yeager’s office visits. In addition, defense counsel argued that because Yeager had a history of episodic seizure disorder, Yeager could not show that the January 2012 syncope was caused by bradycardia., Yeager claimed the failure to replace the pacemaker caused the January 2012 bradycardia-related syncope and subsequent car accident. He claimed that as a result, he now suffers anxiety, depression, fear of driving, and loss of enjoyment of life. Thus, Yeager sought recovery of $3,146.90 in out-of-pocket losses for car repairs, an unspecified amount for increased auto insurance premiums, and $252.81 in medical expenses. He also sought recovery of $500,000 in past and future noneconomic damages. Defense counsel denied Yeager’s syncope was caused by bradycardia or was otherwise related to not replacing the pacemaker.