Our Record of Success

DBMS Obtains Defense Verdict in Cook County

Stetson Atwood and Ashley Dus successfully defended two emergency medicine physicians, a resident physician and a hospital in a medical negligence trial in which the plaintiff asked the jury to award between $25 and $50 million in damages related to the child’s development of bacterial meningitis and permanent hearing loss and brain damage.

Plaintiff alleged that on March 25, 2008, the defendant emergency medicine physicians deviated from the standard of care by failing to take protective custody of a 6-month-old sick child with elevated fever and administer antibiotic treatment, resulting in the child’s development of bacterial meningitis the next day. The defense argued that the defendant physicians acted appropriately by ordering the appropriate antibiotic to treat the child in the emergency department, although that antibiotic was refused by the child’s mother. Further, the defense established that the child was not in imminent danger such that the standard of care required the emergency medicine physicians to take protective custody of the child and administer the treatment against the mother’s wishes. Rather, the child remained stable in the emergency department and was transferred to the floor the next day for observation, where he was later diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and sustained permanent hearing loss and brain damage.

Following a two-and-a-half-week trial, the jury returned a verdict for the defense.