February, 2023
Gerry Toner and Scott Burroughs successfully defended an emergency department physician in Jefferson County Circuit Court in Louisville, Kentucky. Plaintiffs alleged that the emergency department physician (and other defendants who were not present at trial) failed to appropriately work-up and diagnose an aortic dissection which eventually caused the death of the Plaintiff. Toner and Burroughs argued that the emergency physician did not breach the standard of care and that the physician’s course of care, including the prompt decision to admit under cardiology consult for further work-up, was appropriate. They argued that Plaintiff’s presentation was atypical for an aortic dissection and his symptoms were much more consistent with and likely to be the result of the exceedingly more common acute coronary syndrome or acute coronary ischemia. They further argued that because of such, it was wholly appropriate for the emergency physician to take the course he did. All of these arguments were supported by well-qualified expert testimony. Plaintiff asked the jury to return a verdict in the amount of $12,353,147.50. This request for damages included: $500,000.00 for the decedent’s pain and suffering; $5,843,195.00 for the decedent’s loss of earning capacity; funeral expenses of $9,952.50; and two separate $3,000,000.00 claims for loss of consortium of the decedent’s two then-minor children. After a six-day trial, the jury agreed with Toner and Burroughs and returned a defense verdict in favor of the emergency medicine physician.