$12M VERDICT FOR QUADRIPLEGIC MINOR

Jeff Kuntz teamed with Derek H. Potts and Timothy L. Sifers, both of the Potts Law Firm, in obtaining a landmark, $12.1 million jury verdict for their client, a quadriplegic minor, in a medical negligence case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

After a seven-day trial and twenty hours of deliberation, the eight-person jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the child against her emergency room physician in the case of “Midwest Trust vs. Lisa Gard, M.D.” The jury found that the emergency room doctor was negligent in her assessment of the minor upon her presentation to the emergency room of a Kansas hospital.

Potts, Sifers, and Kuntz argued on behalf of their client that a child shown by testing to have emergent blood pressure and complaining of severe posterior neck pain and right arm pain should have been assessed for a neurological condition on the differential diagnosis to rule out neurological problems. The plaintiff further alleged that the misdiagnosis of strep throat that sent the child back home caused a significant delay in the detection of a hemorrhaging arteriovenous malformation (“AVM”) that was putting pressure on the child’s spinal cord.

By the time the child returned to the hospital, she was suffering from extended paralysis and was sent to Children’s Mercy Hospital where she was operated on to remove the AVM. The defendant denied that she was negligent in any way, denied that an earlier transfer would have improved the minor’s outcome, and denied the nature and extent of her injuries and damages.

With one of the leading professional liability practices in the Midwest, Wagstaff & Cartmell uses our experience on both sides of the docket, for plaintiffs and defendants, to best represent our clients and pursue the best outcomes possible.