IADC member Charles Cole of Schuyler Roche, P.C. in Chicago, Illinois successfully defended an Emergency Medical Physician in a Wrongful Death medical malpractice case in Cook County, Illinois. The plaintiff, the estate of a deceased 10-year-old girl, claimed that the emergency doctor was negligent in failing to assess and diagnose a chronic inflammatory bowel disease which eventually led to her death three months later. Two pediatricians were also defendants having seen the child before and after the emergency department visit in question.The plaintiff claimed that the child died due to hemorrhagic shock secondary to an acute exacerbation of Crohn’s Disease which should have been diagnosed and treated long before the child’s demise. The defendants contended that the post-mortem examination by the Coroner was incorrect and that the death was due to an acute onset of a fulminate bacterial infection of the entire GI tract leading to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and death.
The plaintiff asked the Cook County jury for more than $8,000,000 in damages. Following almost three weeks of trial and 2 days of deliberation, the 12-member jury found for the Emergency Physician and awarded no damages to the plaintiff or her family. The jury remained deadlocked as to the co-defendant pediatricians who will need to retry the lawsuit.