Lawyers start picking jurors in first Excela stent lawsuit to go to trial

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Updated 6 hours ago

Jury selection began Monday in Westmoreland County in a lawsuit against Excela Health and a doctor accused of performing unnecessary heart surgery.

Stephen H. Sensenich, 57, of Irwin claimed in a lawsuit that Dr. Ehab Morcos with Westmoreland Cardiology performed three unnecessary procedures in 2008 at a Greensburg hospital to implant a stent, a mesh device to improve blood flow to his heart.

The trial would be the first of at least 112 lawsuits filed against the health system, Morcos and Dr. George Bou Samra, in which patients claimed they were subjected to a series of unnecessary stent surgeries at Excela Westmoreland Hospital.

The Sensenich case has been on hold since August 2015, when a first attempt to pick a jury failed after lawyers determined too many potential jurors had a conflict of interest with the hospital.

More than 100 potential jurors were summoned Monday before Judge Anthony Marsili to be questioned by lawyers for the trial. Opening statements in the case are tentatively scheduled to begin Monday. The trial is expected to take about two weeks.

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