2001 Trial Results

7 Defense Verdicts

November 28, 2001

A Scott County man broke his leg when his tractor rolled over him, and a Louisville orthopedist set the fracture with a closed reduction.  As the leg healed, however, it did so with a deformity, and the Plaintiff asked for $177,000 dollars in damages, alleging that the doctor should have performed an open reduction, setting the fracture with an IM nail.  The doctor, represented by Donald Brown, counter-argued that the treatment was proper and that the Plaintiff’s suggested procedure represented just another alternative within the spectrum of appropriate care.  The Jefferson County jury agreed, awarding the Plaintiff no damages.

November 14, 2001

When presented with a patient’s arteriogram and x-ray, a Lexington vascular surgeon suspected bowel inflammatory disease.  Later, a non-emergent laparatomy was performed and this revealed grave bowel necrosis; the patient had been suffering from undiagnosed mesenteric ischemia of his bowel.  The patient died five days later of a bowel infarction.  The Plaintiff criticized the doctor for not diagnosing the condition in a timely fashion.  The defense, led by Gerald Toner, argued that the properly treated inflammatory disease masked the effects of the secondary and very rare mesenteric ischemia.  Thus, concluded the defense, the doctor’s failure to correctly diagnose earlier was quite understandable.  The Fayette County jury agreed, awarding the Plaintiff none of the sought 1.56 million dollars.

August 22, 2001

A Jefferson County jury found in favor of a Louisville woman who was sued after her vehicle rolled into a car in front of her at a stoplight.  The man whom she ran into claimed the collision caused back pain which ultimately led to two disc surgeries.  The defense, led by David Strite, successfully argued that the collision was too minor to cause the pain.  Causation, it was argued, lay with a second, unrelated crash a month later, the patient’s degenerative disc problems, or both.

August 13, 2001

A Hardin County jury found in favor of a physician who failed to diagnose appendicitis.  Upon admittance, the doctor diagnosed a viral GI infection and sent the patient home.  A few days later, however, appendicitis was discovered. The Plaintiff had an appendectomy and now is left with abdominal pain and an unsightly scar.  The Plaintiff alleged all the classic signs of appendicitis existed, but the doctor simply missed the diagnosis, allowing the condition to worsen.  James Grohmann and the defense successfully argued that the physician’s diagnosis was reasonable and proper and that the delay in diagnosis caused no harm.

March 14, 2001

While exiting a Louisville car dealership, a man slipped and fell on icy conditions, causing ligament tears in both his legs that would have to be surgically repaired.  The Plaintiff alleged the dealership should have known about the frozen foreign substance.  The defense, led by Andrew Clooney, argued that the dealership had no knowledge of the substance and pointed out that in the absence of any medical testimony, the court cannot know for sure that the surgery was related to the incident.  After just a half hour of deliberation, the Jefferson County jury found for the dealership, awarding no damages.

January 22, 2001

Gerald Toner successfully defended a Louisville neurosurgeon from allegations of negligence after a series of complications strung out over three surgeries killed a man.  The first surgery was a disc fusion, and second was a complicated three-level anterior disc fusion.  The third surgery removed a dislodged screw used in the bone grafts of the second surgery.  Complications arose from this last surgery two months later, the man being stricken with quadriplegia before dying six days later.  The Plaintiff alleged the neurosurgeon deviated from the standard of care during the first two surgeries, bringing about the need for the third, which in turn caused the fatal spinal cord infection.  The defendant claimed that the complications which arose from the second surgery were caused by a fracture that was no fault of the defendant, and that the surgeries, while proper, were not without significant risk.  The Jefferson County jury found in favor of the defense, awarding no damages.

January 5, 2001

A complex triple bypass was performed by a Louisville surgeon, but a large sponge was mistakenly left inside the man’s chest.  One month after a procedure to remove the sponge, the patient suffered a heart attack.  The Plaintiff alleged the doctor’s caused undue suffering and shortness of breath, and ultimately led to the heart attack.  The defense argued that (1) the sponge count was the sole responsibility of the nurses and (2) it was the patient’s deteriorating coronary condition, not the forgotten sponge that led to the heart attack.  The Jefferson County jury found in favor of the physician, awarding none of the asked-for $1,665,654.