The wife of former Michelin-starred chef Jacob Bickelhaupt has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, claiming mistakes made during her treatment led to more brain surgeries and a longer recovery.
Nadia Bickelhaupt sued the hospital, neurosurgeon Dr. Kaveh Asadi-Moghaddam and physician assistant Sara Seneker in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. The complaint was filed Oct. 8. Her husband is charged with attempted second-degree murder in an alleged attack at their West Palm Beach home in June 2025. She has had five brain surgeries and is still missing part of her skull.
According to the lawsuit, Bickelhaupt was admitted to St. Mary’s on June 2, 2025, for emergency surgery to remove a hematoma. She was discharged June 11 and returned in early July with an infection at the surgical site. The complaint says that during a July 6 procedure to drain an abscess, the doctors failed to remove infected bone and instead placed a wound vacuum over it.
A second neurosurgeon found the bone was infected on July 18. Ten days later, Bickelhaupt had another operation to remove the bone and reconstruct the wound. Her attorneys argue the earlier failure caused additional surgeries and a more complicated reconstruction. The suit seeks damages for permanent injury, disfigurement, pain and suffering, medical expenses and lost income, and it requests a jury trial.
A St. Mary’s spokesperson declined to comment. The allegations have not been proven in court.
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