SBH Attorneys Taylor Nora and Caroline Kernan Successfully Defend Local Physician

SBH partner Taylor Nora and associate Caroline Kernan secured a defense verdict in Whiteside County on behalf of their client, an emergency medicine physician.  The case involved a seventy-four-year-old woman who presented to an emergency department and later passed away.  The Plaintiff claimed the physician failed to timely identify and treat the patient’s sepsis.  The Defense argued the physician fully complied with the standard of care and established the patient did not appear septic or meet sepsis criteria.  The Defense successfully demonstrated there were other medical conditions that explained her presentation.  It was also effectively argued that even if the patient had received broad-spectrum antibiotics earlier, it would not have prevented her death.  The Plaintiff asked the jury to award more than $3 million.  After 25 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a resounding verdict in favor of the Defendant. The case was tried in Whiteside County Circuit Court before The Honorable Judge Jennifer Rangel Kelly.