Our Record of Success

DBMS Obtains a Defense Verdict in Cook County

DBMS obtains a defense verdict in a wrongful death case in Cook County.

Sherri Arrigo and Jennifer Labus successfully defended two emergency medicine physicians in a medical negligence case related to the death of a 19-year-old woman five days after giving birth to her first child via uncomplicated cesarean section.  Plaintiff claimed that a suburban hospital, a nurse, an obstetrician-gynecologist, a family medicine physician and two emergency medicine physicians negligently failed to timely diagnose and appropriately treat the patient’s abdominal infection/septic shock with antibiotics, fluid resuscitation and source control (surgery) when she presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and abnormal vital signs.  The emergency medicine physicians argued that they complied with the standard of care by appropriately recognizing and treating the patient for shock, while working to determine the cause of the shock in a complex patient whose presentation was more consistent with hemorrhagic shock associated with a post-operative bleed than with septic shock due to infection. The defense further argued that based on the autopsy findings, the patient already had advanced invasive Group A Streptococcus sepsis with multiple organ system damage at the time she arrived at the ED; therefore, earlier diagnosis and treatment would not have changed the outcome.

The trial lasted nearly four weeks. Plaintiff requested $12.4 million in damages.  Following several hours of thoughtful deliberation, the jury returned a verdict for the defense.