SBH Partners Jenny Blake and Samantha D'Anna Get Justice for Local Hospital and Its Doctors

SBH partners Jenny Blake and Samantha D’Anna secured a defense verdict in Cook County on behalf of their clients, a local hospital and its physicians. The case involved a sixty-six-year-old woman who underwent a diagnostic cardiac catheterization as part of the protocol for a future aortic valve replacement. After the procedure, the patient was hypotensive (i.e., had low blood pressure), was diagnosed with a large retroperitoneal bleed (“RPB”) and was transferred to the ICU for conservative management. Later in the day, the patient suddenly decompensated and then required an endovascular repair of her artery. Despite the doctors’ best efforts, the patient died from her complications. Plaintiffs claimed the interventional cardiologist negligently cannulated/accessed the external iliac artery instead of the right common femoral artery during the diagnostic cardiac catheterization (i.e., it was a “high stick”), resulting in a large/massive RPB. Plaintiffs claimed the patient needed to be taken back to surgery for definitive treatment to seal the puncture site once the patient became persistently hypotensive and/or when the RPB was identified. The doctors defended these claims by explaining this was not a high stick, and even if it was, that is an unfortunate risk of a cardiac catheterization and occurred despite appropriate care and treatment. The defense further showed how the RPB complication was identified promptly by the physicians who appropriately managed the patient conservatively until her condition warranted endovascular intervention. While the endovascular interventions did not ultimately save the patient, the interventional cardiologists as well as the vascular surgeon took all appropriate and necessary steps to try to treat this patient’s complications, but she died from them despite that. Plaintiffs asked the jury to award more than $19 million. After less than 90 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a resounding verdict in favor of the hospital and its doctors. The case was tried in the Cook County Circuit Court before The Honorable Preston Jones.