Successful Defense of Hospital and Emergency Physicians

Lowis & Gellen partner Brian Levin successfully defended Sherman Hospital and its emergency department physicians in a recent trial. The case was brought on behalf of a 58-year old woman with multiple co-morbid conditions. Plaintiff’s counsel claimed the emergency room physicians, on two separate visits, failed to diagnose Coumadin toxicity (a condition that hampers the blood's ability to clot when a bleed occurs) and failed to reverse the potentially fatal condition in a timely manner. When an acute, but not active, brain hemorrhage was detected, Vitamin K (which reverses Coumadin toxicity) was given and the patient was transferred to the care of a neurosurgeon at another hospital. The bleed healed without surgery, and the patient was placed back on Coumadin. She experienced a series of subsequent bleeds, and died more than five months later, due to an infection contracted from a central IV line. Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury for $4.9 million in closing arguments. The jury returned a defense verdict for the hospital in under three hours.