The trial team of Sommer Luzynczyk and Brian Henry secured a defense verdict

The trial team of Sommer Luzynczyk and Brian Henry secured a defense verdict on behalf of their client, an OB/GYN, in a wrongful death case. The jury trial was held before Judge Thomas Lyons in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. The patient, a 56 year old woman, underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy. Three days after surgery, the patient developed a post-operative ileus and treatment was started. Despite warnings by three different physicians, the patient left AMA the following afternoon. Three days later, the patient presented to an outside hospital and was taken to surgery where four enterotomies were found in the Roux Limb of the small bowel. The patient died nine days later. The plaintiff maintained the OB/GYN negligently caused the four enterotomies when inserting an Optiview trocar to gain access to the abdomen to perform the laparoscopic surgery, and the enterotomies were never diagnosed before the patient left AMA. Sommer and Brian successfully argued the sole proximate cause of the enterotomies was progression of the patient’s ileus after she left AMA. They argued that the ileus was untreated while the patient was at home, which allowed the ileus to progress into breakdown of the wall of the Roux Limb in four areas resulting in four enterotomies. The plaintiff asked the jury for $8.5 million