Mary Kay Scott and Christopher Leach obtain a not guilty verdict for defendant family medicine physician in trial in cook county
Mary Kay Scott and Christopher A. Leach tried a medical negligence case before Judge O’Brien Sheahan. The case involved a family medicine physician, who had seen the patient from 2011 through the events of June of 2019, in his private practice. The patient was a 62-year-old male at the time of the admission to AMITA St. Francis Hospital. The patient came to the hospital through the emergency department, and the ER physician had consulted an endocrinologist out of the emergency department. The patient presented with complaints of not sleeping, feeling out of it, and disoriented, as well as shortness of breath. The patient was admitted to a medical surgical floor in the hospital before the family medicine physician was contacted. The patient had been diagnosed by the consulting endocrinologist with a hypothyroid crisis and hyponatremia, before the defendant, family medicine physician was contacted, and treatment for the conditions were in progress on the floor. The family medicine defendant was the admitting and attending physician; however, the care and treatment was managed by the consulting endocrinologist. There was no criticism of the plan for the endocrinologist to manage the patient. Further, the patient had been seen in the office of his primary care physician on March 18, 2019, and had normal thyroid labs before the June 23, 2019, hospitalization. Therefore, this was an onset of a new condition of hypothyroid crisis.
As of June 24, 2019, the family medicine physician was aware that the plan by the endocrinologist was that the labs were trending in the right direction and to discharge the patient on June 25, 2019, and for the patient to be seen in the office setting with his family medicine physician after discharge from the hospital.
Starting overnight on June 25, 2019, into June 26, 2019, the patient was having difficulty sleeping and was given Ambien by the residents on the floor as that was a medication the patient had listed from home. The patient noted that he took a half an Ambien tablet at home due to feeling out of it after taking the medication. He was given a dose of 10 mg. of Ambien on June 25, overnight by the residents, and soon after he developed confusion, left his room on the floor, pulled out his IVs and telemetry leads, and Code grays were called. Security was called 3 times as he was trying to leave the floor. The patient’s EEG showed an abnormality. Therefore, Haldol could not be given so the patient received 2 mg x 3 of Ativan without improvement in his confusion. Bilateral soft restraints were attempted which were not successful. All of these events were undertaken by first and second year residents on the floor, with no documentation as to any internal medicine attending physician being contacted.
The patient became increasingly drowsy, agitated, anxious, and confused the morning of June 26, 2019. On examination, he was confused, possibly hallucinating, agitated, sleepy and snoring very loudly. The patient was put on CPAP, and restrained, and labs were performed which showed abnormalities. A first year intern ordered 500 mL of normal saline in the morning hours. Flumazenil was ordered, and given twice without improvement in his mental status. The second year resident on the floor in the first week of being a second year called the ICU resident who was also in the first week of second year residency on ICU rotation and transfer was not made before the event. There was no note made by the second year resident from ICU as to a call or evaluation being performed, and no transfer occurred. No contact was made with the EICU, overnight, nor with the attending ICU intensivist physician during the day of June 26.
A rapid response was called in the early evening of June 26, 2019, and the patient coded with the Code Blue called immediately after the rapid response team arrived and with the patient being non-responsive. The patient was diagnosed with a cardio-respiratory arrest, and transferred to the ICU with pulseless electrical activity for 10 minutes.
All but one resident stated they had never spoken with the patient’s family medicine physician. The family medicine physician testified he never received a call on June 25 through June 26, about the patient, and learned from the patient’s wife that her husband was in the ICU. One resident claimed that the first year intern made a call to the family medicine physician, but the intern denied ever speaking with the family medicine physician. The term attending was used in notes stating, “discussed with senior resident, and attending.” No name of a senior resident or attending was in any note by the interns and residents. The only resident who stated a call was made never put anything into her note to state that an attending was contacted before leaving the hospital for the day. The patient’s family medicine physician was not part of the internal medicine residency teaching faculty and did not train the interns and residents. None of the attending internal medicine hospitalists were ever contacted by the interns or residents. The internal medicine hospitalists were on the floor and available to the interns/residents for consultation.
After the events, the patient remained in the hospital and ultimately was discharged to in-patient rehabilitation at Alden, and then to Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, and continued physical and speech therapy out-patient at ATI. The patient was diagnosed with Lance Adams Syndrome, which is a condition of myoclonus with uncontrolled twitching of the face, mouth, hands and arms, torso, legs and feet. The plaintiff returned to work in a different capacity as his prior job was on rail cars and the patient was a fall risk due to his condition. He was place on medications, and remains on medication to control the myoclonus and has had improvement, but uses a walker and is not able to drive.
A verdict was entered on November 8, 2024. The jury began deliberations at 2:30 p.m. and returned at 3:45 p.m. The family medicine physician represented by Mary Kay Scott and Christopher A. Leach was found not guilty.
The verdict as to the hospital was for $20 million. During closing arguments, plaintiff requested the jury award $75.5 million. The hospital and plaintiff entered into a high/low agreement after closing arguments with a low of $7 million, and a high of $20 million, and judgment was entered on the high.