Morrison Mahoney Partner Bill Smart and Associate Taylor Garner recently obtained a defense verdict after an eight-day medical malpractice trial in Carroll County Superior Court.
Plaintiff alleged that our client, a hospital-employed primary care physician and health system, was negligent in failing to diagnose and treat a perianal abscess that progressed to osteomyelitis of the coccyx, resulting in multiple hospitalizations, surgeries, and alleged neurocognitive injuries. The plaintiff was medically complex with preexisting partial quadriplegia, colostomy, dysreflexia, frequent UTIs from self-catheterization, and skin integrity issues, but was only 51 years old, and would drive and attend medical appointments independently.
Bill and Taylor defended both standard of care and causation with an internist, infectious disease expert, and colon and rectal surgeon who opined that the infection could not have been present at the time of plaintiff’s last primary care appointment two months earlier due to the aggressive bacteria involved, limited tissue damage and bone destruction on imaging at the time of diagnosis, and later progression, despite being treated with appropriate antibiotics. Plaintiff claimed, among other things, that the abscess originated with a colonoscopy biopsy, and progressed slowly over time, which we proved was not medically or anatomically possible.
Counsel asked for $8M in closing argument, and defense verdict was returned after about 1.5 hours.
