Recent Trial Results

1. On November 16, 2011, Mr. Johnson, along with associate Erin E. Blake, assisted firm president, William V. Johnson, in obtaining a defense verdict from a Cook County, IL, jury in favor of the University of Chicago Medical Center following a two-week medical negligence trial in which damages in excess of $45 million were sought. The lawsuit arose out of allegations that proper informed consent was not obtained by a transplant surgeon prior to a 2007 kidney transplant surgery where in the plaintiff was later found to have contracted HIV and Hepatitis C that was transmitted from the deceased donor. Plaintiff was one of our four individuals in the Chicago metropolitan area to have contracted HIV from transplants of organs from this deceased donor. These transmissions were the first to have occurred in the U.S. since 1986, and the case garnered national publicity.
   
   At trial, plaintiff argued that the hospital’s transplant surgeon failed to inform the plaintiff that the donor kidney was characterized by the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) as “high-risk” due to the donor’s history of homosexuality and that, had plaintiff been properly informed, she would not have accepted this organ and thus would not have contracted HIV and Hepatitis C.
   
   The defense argued that that the standard of care at the time of this transplant did not require transplant surgeons to inform transplant recipients regarding organs characterized as “high-risk” by the CDC because the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C from a sero-negative donor had not occurred in the modern era of HIV testing and with over 400,000 transplants. After this occurrence, the standard of care was changed to require the documentation of a specific informed consent relative to an organ recipient’s acceptance of a CDC-designated “high risk organ.” Moreover, the defense argued that the transplant nurse involved in the case told the patient that the donor was a homosexual, although this was not documented anywhere in the medical record. Experts testified on behalf of the defense from Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, and Harvard University School of Medicine in Boston. After two hours of deliberations, the jury returned a defense verdict. A.M. v. UCMC, Court No. 08 L 12783 (Hon. Judge Thomas L. Hogan, presiding).
   
   Click Here for the Jury Verdict Report.
   
   
2. On March 4, 2011, Mr. Johnson assisted firm president, William V. Johnson, in obtaining a verdict in favor of University of Chicago Medical Center and its obstetrician following a weeklong jury trial in which damages in excess of $4 million were sought. The lawsuit arose out of allegations that a 1996 birth at the medical center was handled inappropriately, leaving the child, now age 14, with a brachial plexus injury in the left shoulder and arm. The plaintiff argued that the obstetrician and a resident in training were negligent with respect to maneuvers utilized to relieve a shoulder dystocia that occurred during the child's birth, and that as a result of inappropriate traction on the baby's head during delivery, certain nerves near the baby's spine were stretched or partially torn, resulting in the injury. Mr. Johnson argued that the physicians utilized the appropriate maneuvers to alleviate the shoulder dystocia, and the jury was shown a videotape created by the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists which matched the maneuvers utilized by the obstetricians. After an hour of deliberations, the jury returned a defense verdict.
   
   
   
3. On May 21, 2010, Mr. Johnson and fellow J & B shareholder, Julie M. Kennedy, obtained a unanimous "not guilty" verdict in favor of a Bloomington, IL ob/gyn from a jury impaneled in McLean County, IL.  Plaintiff, a 31-year-old female horse trainer, claimed that the defendant surgeon violated the standard of care throughout two surgical procedures which he performed on her in May, 2005, and that she suffered a bowel obstruction which required a third surgery to correct, and permanent episodes of abdominal pain and gastrointestinal (GI) issues for which there is no effective treatment.  Plaintiff's counsel sought an award of over $700,000, and argued that the defendant ob/gyn negligently perforated plaintiff's bowel during the course of the initial procedure, admitted doing so to the patient and her friend after the surgery, and then made a negligent attempt at repairing the perforation during a second procedure two days later. Plaintiff claimed that she suffered from painful peritonitis for a period of three weeks, until she underwent a third surgery with a general surgeon. who found several pelvic abscesses. Medical specials were claimed in excess of $80,000. 
   
   The defense argued that, in retrospect, plaintiff sustained a thermal injury to the bowel during the injury as a result of the ob/'gyn's use of electrosurgical scissors which were used at that time to remove scar tissue, and that such an injury is a rare but known complication of the procedure. The physician testified that he did not "admit" to patient that he accidentally perforated her bowel, and testified that his attempt to repair the small hole in her bowel was appropriate and within the standard of care.  He further testified that his post-surgical care of the patient was appropriate, that she did not have peritonitis for 3 weeks, and that the condition which necessitated the third surgery was a partial small bowel obstruction, which is a known and recognized complication of the bowel repair he performed.  The defense also argued that plaintiff was not injured to the extent claimed, and that her treating surgeon had released her for resumption of her normal activities within 2 months of the third surgery.  The jury deliberated for approximately 3 hours prior to coming to its verdict.  A.O. v. G.O., et al, Court No. 06 L 140 (McLean County, IL, Hon. Judge Michael Prall).
   
   
   
4. On November 24, 2009, Mr. Johnson and J & B associate, William T. Young, obtained a favorable result in Cook County, IL, for a national restaurant chain in a premises liability case wherein plaintiff alleged he slipped and fell on wet flooring inside plaintiff's restaurant and subsequently developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CPRS) in both of his legs which caused him to be unable to find any employment since 2004.  Plaintiff's attorney asked the jury to award just under $3,000,000.  The accident happened when plaintiff, a beer truck driver, loaded two full kegs of beer and 1 cylinder of beer into the restaurant from outside of the restaurant, where there was snow and ice on the ground.  Plaintiff alleged that what he slipped on did not constitute a "natural accumulation" because a store manager testified that, about 10 minutes before plaintiff's accident, he tracked in "drops" of water on his shoes from outside.  The defense argued that plaintiff was contributorily negligent in attempting to transport over 300 lbs. of beer without keeping a proper lookout or debris or water on the floor.  The defense further argued that plaintiff knowingly violated his employer's safety rules on transporting beer, which were that only one keg at a time be transported.  The restaurant also argued that plaintiff's employer, which was a third-party defendant, negligently trained and supervised plaintiff.  With respect to damages, the defense argued that plaintiff did not suffer from CRPS, that he suffered from disuse atrophy, and noted that he failed to follow up with a course of physical therapy that had been recommended to him by a pain specialist.  The jury returned a verdict of $200,000, which was reduced to $100,000 after the jury found that plaintiff was 50% contributorily negligent for his injuries.  The jury further found that, as to the restaurant's contribution claim against plaintiff's employer, the employer was liable in contribution for 30% of the verdict based upon the negligence of the employer in training and supervising plaintiff as to the number of kegs he could safely transport while on deliveries.  M.M. and M.M. vs. TGI Friday's, at al, Court No. 06 L 956 (Cook County, IL, Hon. Judge Thomas Flanagan)

Speaker

1. "Preventing a Lawsuit When the Inevitable Bad Outcome Occurs," Advocate South Suburban Hospital Physician Practice Improvement, June 16, 2010.
2. Panelist, "Risk Management Considerations in Radiology," Chicago Hospital Risk Management Society (CHRMS) webinar, September 25, 2009.
3. "Never Events", presented at the Physician Practice Improvement Seminar, Advocate South Suburban Hospital, Hazel Crest, IL, April 15, 2009.
4. "Keeping Lawyers at Bay: Transparency and Completeness in Medical Record Keeping and Documentation," presented at the Physician Practice Improvement Conference at Advocate South Suburban Hospital, Hazel Crest, Illinois, January 28, 2009.
   
5. "Specific Torts," presented with Michael T. Gill of Pfaff & Gill, P.C., before Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) on June 29, 2007.

Author

1. Co-Author, 10 Years Later, Section 2-622, 90 Day Extension Rule Invalidated &
   Defendants Stripped of a Valuable Defense, Johnson & Bell, Ltd. Health Care Law Alert Summer 2008
   
2. Defense Verdict for Hospital Reinstated; "Missing Witness" Issue, Illinois Caselaw Update, March 28, 2008 (Click Here for Article)
3. Forum Non Conveniens, Illinois Caselaw Update, June 19, 2008 (Click Here for Article)