Defense Verdict against Plaintiff Patient/Lawyer

Michael Barry and Timothy Weaver obtained a defense jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which a lawyer claimed that the defendant orthopedic surgeon prescribed excessive and unnecessary antibiotics following surgery for a hand fracture in violation of widely accepted guidelines and thus caused her 9 months of severe and debilitating diarrhea due to Clostridium difficile infection. The defendant maintained that risk of surgical site infection was greater than the risk of “C. diff” infection in GI tract, that guidelines did not apply to ambulatory surgery centers, and that late onset of symptoms called into question whether antibiotics were the cause of diarrhea.