Rebecca W. Twine, Appellant, v. Mercy Hospital et al., Respondents

Rebecca W. Twine, Appellant, v Mercy Hospital et al., Respondents. [MAJORITY] In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for alleged medical malpractice, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (O’Shaughnessy, J.), dated December 15, 1989, which granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it is barred by the applicable Statute of Limitations. Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs. The plaintiff alleges that an anonymous surgeon who sutured an accidental laceration on the dorsum of her right wrist in July 1986, committed medical malpractice. She did not institute her lawsuit, however, until on or about October 4, 1989. Since an action to recover damages for medical malpractice must be instituted within two years and six months of the occurrence of the malpractice (CPLR 214-a), the plaintiff’s action is time-barred. The statute is not tolled by the plaintiffs lack of knowledge of the physician’s malpractice (see, Meath v Mishrick, 68 NY2d 992; cf., Goldsmith v Howmedica, Inc., 67 NY2d 120). Nor has the plaintiff alleged fraudulent concealment sufficient to invoke the doctrine of equitable estoppel (cf., Simcuski v Saeli, 44 NY2d 442). Thompson, J. P., Brown, Fiber and Harwood, JJ., concur.