UNANIMOUS DEFENSE VERDICT IN HIGH-PROFILE CASE

The Law Offices of Benvenuto & Gaujean, by Max Gaujean and Michael Maher, obtained a defense verdict on behalf of an interventional cardiologist in a case involving a 23 year old female who was seen for a rare complication of H1N1 influenza where the virus targeted her heart.

The interventional cardiologist responded to an emergency code at a community hospital after the plaintiff arrived at the hospital in critical condition, and who would have died without the intervention of our interventional cardiologist. She coded and had to be resuscitated in the emergency room. The interventional cardiologist then brought the patient to the cardiac catheterization lab, performed interventions via cardiac catheterization, and transferred her to a tertiary care facility.

After the plaintiff was transferred to an outside hospital, she went on to develop further complications that resulted in amputations involving multiple limbs, including a below-the-elbow amputation of one limb. The plaintiff alleged that further interventions should have been performed by the interventional cardiologist. At the time of trial, the interventional cardiologist was one of nine named defendants, which also included medical providers and facilities with whom the plaintiff had been treated during the 24-hour period preceding our client’s involvement in her care.

One of the more challenging aspects of the trial was coordinating the varied concerns and perspectives of six different defense trial counsel representing those nine different defendants. Over the course of the three month trial, the jury heard from eighteen (18) different witnesses, many of whom testified over multiple days. At the conclusion the trial, the plaintiff asked for an award exceeding $25 million. Following deliberations, the jury unanimously ruled in favor of all defendants, including our interventional cardiologist.