June 26, 2009

Donald Brown, David Strite and Benjamin Weigel successfully defended a local internal medicine specialist during a week-long trial in Henderson County Circuit Court.  Plaintiff claimed that negligent post-operative management led to the patient’s death three days after delivery of her first child.  Specifically, Plaintiff alleged that the internist deviated from the standard of care by discharging the patient with anemia, tachycardia and pneumonia. It was further alleged that these conditions led to multi-faceted cardiopulmonary failure.  Brown, Strite and Weigel defended by demonstrating that the patient manifested no signs of pneumonia on the day of discharge and that the physicians involved appropriately managed her anemia.   Rather, Plaintiff’s death was caused by an amniotic fluid embolism, an unpreventable, undetectable and untreatable condition.  Plaintiff offered testimony to rebut this causation theory from a world-renowned expert in amniotic fluid emboli.  The jury, however, agreed with the defense, and needed only 12 minutes to render a unanimous verdict in favor of the physician.