Lowis & Gellen Attorneys Robert H. Smith, Vito M. Masciopinto, Scott R. Wolfe and Julia Molina obtained a Not Guilty verdict for a Chicago hospital and its emergency department physicians. The Plaintiff’s attorney asked for $15,000,000 from the jury. Plaintiff, a 6-year-old boy, was taken to the hospital’s ER due to back pain where he was examined. The ER felt he was stable and discharged him without doing an MRI. Approximately one week later he lost function in his legs and was taken to another hospital where an MRI diagnosed a spine tumor. Emergent neurosurgery was done but the boy was rendered a paraplegic with no movement or sensation below the umbilicus. The boy, now 18 years old, is confined to a wheelchair, is permanently incontinent of bladder and bowel, is impotent and suffers from skin breakdowns from his wheelchair. Lowis & Gellen argued plaintiff's visit to the hospital was very early in the disease process and the tumor could not be diagnosed at that time. After a three-week trial the Cook County, Illinois jury returned a verdict in favor of Lowis & Gellen’s clients, the hospital and ER physicians.
