Our Record of Success

DBMS Obtains Directed Verdict

On April 18, 2024, Michael Borree and Jeff Eippert obtained a directed verdict in favor of their client, a cardiology group, in a wrongful death case tried in Cook County. Plaintiff alleged that that the cardiology group, through the actions of its employed cardiologist, was medically negligent in failing to direct a 45 year old patient to the emergency department for a workup of infective endocarditis. The patient, who underwent aortic valve replacement surgery less than a year prior, presented to his primary care physician’s office with complaints of chills, night sweats, unintended weight loss, and numbness in his fingertips. According to the plaintiff, the patient’s primary care physician called the cardiologist for advice on what to do with the patient, and the cardiologist allegedly failed to instruct the primary care physician to send the patient to the emergency room. Four days later, the patient returned to his primary care physician’s office and was directed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with fungal endocarditis. The patient was ultimately transferred to a local tertiary care center and suffered a massive heart attack before surgery could be performed. The patient unfortunately passed away one week later.   Plaintiff claimed that an earlier diagnosis would have resulted in surgery, and the heart attack being avoided.   During presentation of evidence, the cardiologist and the primary care physician both testified that the call placed to the cardiologist did not occur on the date of the visit to the primary care physician.  DBMS established that the cardiologist was therefore not told of the complaints of chills, night sweats, unintended weight loss and numbness in the fingertips.    At the close of plaintiff’s case, DBMS attorneys moved for a directed verdict. The plaintiff argued there was sufficient circumstantial evidence for the jury to conclude the phone call occurred on the day in question, and that the cardiologist deviated from the standard of care. The trial court granted DBMS’s motion for directed verdict, noting that the evidence was insufficient to support a guilty verdict against DBMS’s cardiology group.