Rex Carr (Nov. 6 and links therein) was the plaintiffs’ attorney. Memorial Hospital released a statement:
Memorial Hospital and its over 600 nursing professionals and 300 Medical Staff physicians are obviously disappointed with the jury’s decision in this case.
As in many local court proceedings, Memorial has identified a significant number of important legal issues in this case and will appeal the decision.
Memorial is confident that either the Appellate Court or Supreme Court will agree that a substantial number of serious errors justify a retrial or directed defense verdict.
Expert testimony in this case conclusively determined that Brandon Bauer suffered a rare genetic disorder, hyperinsulinemia. This genetic disorder, despite any form of treatment, is many times fatal and very often results in severe brain damage.
Memorial also concurs with the expert testimony presented that nursing professionals and the physician from Belleville Emergency Physicians, PC did their best to care for their patient under clinically-difficult circumstances and rendered only the high-quality care for which they are so well known.
The medical and scientific evidence and expert testimony in this case clearly do not support this verdict. Memorial has no choice but to appeal this decision because of the serious implications it has for Memorial and all other hospitals and physicians in this area.
If such verdicts are left unchallenged, several hundred healthcare jobs will ultimately be lost from the community.
In addition, it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to recruit replacements for the large number of physicians who have fled this area during the last three years because of high malpractice premiums and fear of unfair treatment in some local courts.
(William Lamb, “Jury awards $7.1 million to parents of boy who developed cerebral palsy”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 5 (via ICJL News)).
2 Comments
Actually, there was no such expert testimony in the case – I sat in on the case. That information was taken from Harry Maier and memo he released to the press and Memorial employees.
For the record, he also tried to do his bit in tainting the jury by running “malpractice crisis” ads in the local papers and on the radio the week prior to the trial.
I’ve been in trial in Belleville and I hope to never visit Belleville again for any reason.