SBH Partner Jenny Blake Gets Justice for Local Network

SBH partner Jenny Blake teamed up with Lee Williams and Elizabeth Polit from Brennan Burker LLIC to secure a decisive defense verdict in Cook County on behalf of their client, a clinically integrated network. Suzana Broderick from SBH assisted behind the scenes. After a 3-week complex medical malpractice case, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defense. Plaintiffs claimed the network controlled and/or had the right to control the independent medical decisions of a family medicine physician who allegedly failed to diagnose melanoma in a middle-aged woman. Plaintiffs further claimed the standard of care required that physician to refer the patient to a dermatologist because she was at increased risk for developing melanoma. As a result, the patient claimed she was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer, required an extensive excision and required 13 months of immunotherapy; whereas, she would have otherwise only required a local excision and would have been cured without an arm deformity. The defense argued the network did not control or have the right to control the independent medical decisions of the family medicine physician or any physician. The patient’s physician exercised her own independent medical judgment, and she appropriately treated the patient. The standard of care did not require that the patient be referred to a dermatologist and the excisions/biopsies done were adequate for a pathologic diagnosis. Plaintiffs asked the jury to award between $7,950,000 and $10,300,000. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the network. The case was tried in Cook County Circuit Court before The Honorable John H. Ehrlich.