A Connecticut man who went to an urgent health care facility with an earache died about three weeks later from infection of the middle ear that led to a bone infection and then a brain abscess, an alleged result of medical negligence, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
Serhii Zaiats died on Sept. 20, 2025, and a subsequent autopsy confirmed his cause of death, the suit says. There was failure “to timely diagnose that the plaintiff decedent’s ear infection had potentially spread into his brain,” the suit claims.
The suit claiming medical negligence was filed by Russell J. Berkowitz, of Berkowitz, Hanna, Amdur & Wildstein LLC, of Shelton, on behalf of Zaiats’ wife.
The suit names as defendants Yale New Haven Health Services Corp. d/b/a Yale New Haven Health Urgent Care- Norwalk, Northwell Healthcare, Inc. d/b/a Norwalk Hospital, and Nuvance Health, Inc., as well as individual medical providers.
Zaiats went to the Yale Urgent Care-Norwalk facility on Aug. 30, 2025, as he was suffering right-side ear pain, which had worsened over the previous few days and brought chills and mild nasal congestion that he had treated with acetaminophen, the suit says.
A doctor at the clinic diagnosed an ear infection, prescribed amoxicillin and advised Zaiats to return in three to four days if the symptoms did not improve. There was “some slight initial improvement” of the symptoms, but Zaiats returned to Yale Urgent Care-Norwalk, then with complaints of “’having a terrible headache’, and ‘his ear better now but having headache at the front of his head’ with pain 9/10,” the suit says.
A nurse then diagnosed Zaiats with acute non-recurrent sinusitis and acute infection of the right ear, and prescribed Doxycycline, Ofloxacin, and a Medrol dose pack and advised Zaiats that the sinusitis and ear infection were likely the cause of his headaches. The nurse told him to continue to hydrate, take acetaminophen as needed and to return for a follow up in three days or sooner or go to the emergency department if his symptoms worsened, the suit says.
At no time during the evaluation did the nurse “create a differential diagnosis for a potential bacterial infection that had spread to his brain, or advise [Zaiats] to immediately go to the hospital for a full workup for said potential bacterial infection, including, but limited to, blood cultures, labs, and/or imaging, and/or an infectious disease consultation,” the suit claims.
Then, the evening of Sept. 18, 2025, Zaiats went to Norwalk Hospital with complaints of feeling ill for the previous two weeks, now weak, not able to eat, fatigued, dizzy, with frontal and posterior headache, occiput pain when moving his eyes, and vomiting with any oral intake for the past week. In addition, his labs revealed a “significantly elevated white blood cell count, thrombocytosis [high platelet count] and elevated C-reactive protein, and his vital signs were abnormal,” according to the suit.
When a CT scan of his brain/head was done, it was revealed that Zaiats “had a thick-walled ill-defined cystic lesion in the right temporal-parietal region with surrounding vasogenic edema, (swelling) significant mass effect, and approximately 9 mm of leftward midline shift and highly concerning for an intracerebral abscess.”
The radiologist recommended clinical follow up and a neurosurgical consult, the suit says.
The next day, after receiving the results of the CT scan, a decision was made to transfer Zaiats to Yale New Haven Hospital “for a higher level of care” and at about 1:18 am, he was intubated due to “the severity of his neurological status.” He was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital at approximately 5 a.m.
John Woike
Yale-New Haven Hospital.
By the time the ambulance reached Yale New Haven Hospital at 5:43 am, his condition had changed, and it was noted that his “pupils were fixed and dilated,” he was lethargic and a CT scan after 6 a.m. “revealed two adjacent centrally low-attenuation thick-walled lesions in the right temporoparietal [brain] lobe, larger one measuring 3.4 cm, with surrounding extensive confluent vasogenic edema and regional mass effect with 11 mm leftward midline shift and mild right uncal herniation, a life-threatening medical emergency that occurs when high pressure inside the skull forces the brain’s temporal lobe downward through the tentorial notch,” the suit says. The National Institutes of Health defines cerebral, or vasogenic edema, as swelling of the brain.
“This shift compresses the brainstem, critical nerves and blood vessels, leading to coma, brain damage, or death,” the suit says. “During the plaintiff decedent’s stay at Yale, his mental status became increasingly altered; he was hallucinating and not following commands since his brain was now progressively deteriorating.”
Zaiats was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital’s Neurology Intensive Care Unit for further evaluation and “management of his catastrophic brain injury” and on that day a neurologist documented: “Catastrophic neurologic injury; neurosurgical intervention would not benefit this patient. Agree with brain death testing and goals of care discussion.”
Zaiats was pronounced dead on Sept. 20, 2025 at approximately 1:35 pm, the suit says.
Further, on or about Sept. 24, 2025, an autopsy was performed and the pathologist who performed Zaiats’s autopsy concluded that his cause of death was the ear infection, leading to bone infection and to brain abscess, the suit claims.
“Our client’s tragic death should have never happened,” said Berkowitz.
“Prior to his untimely death, our client came to this country from the Ukraine to work and send money back home for his wife and two young children with the hope that one day soon they would all be reunited here in Connecticut,” Berkowitz said. ”Now, because of the defendants’ negligent care, that will never happen leaving everyone in the Zaiats family mourning the loss of a very special person.”
A spokesperson for Yale New Haven Health said, “Yale New Haven Health is aware of the lawsuit and extends its sincere sympathies to the family for their loss.
“We remain deeply committed to providing safe, high-quality care to every patient we serve. Because this matter is currently in litigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics of the case,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Nuvance said the company does not comment on pending litigation. Nuvance and Northwell are now one company.
The suit also claims there was failure to “timely treat the plaintiff decedent’s bacterial infection and/or brain,” failure to properly treat Zaiats’ bacterial infection and/or brain, and misdiagnosis of sinusitis and otitis externa; improper prescribing of incorrect medication, and other allegations.
The fatal injuries suffered by Zaiats were caused by the failure of the defendants, the suit claims. He also should have been told to go to the hospital immediately for further workup and had a timely order of a CT scan of his head and/or brain and had intravenous antibiotics, it claims.