Spotlight
Nooney Wins Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict
James F. Nooney, a member in Eastman & Smith's Litigation section, received a favorable verdict for the Firm's physician defendant client in a medical malpractice case. The principal plaintiff sought nearly six million dollars in damages for, among other things, the costs of dialysis and a possible transplant due to the loss of function of both kidneys. The plaintiff's kidneys had been permanently damaged from a vasculitis claimed to have been caused by a rare antibody reaction precipitated by medication prescribed by the defendant for a ten year period to treat an overactive thyroid condition. Because the potential for such a complication was extremely rare and not widely published in the medical literature, the jury concluded that the defendant was not negligent in prescribing the medication or in the monitoring of the plaintiffs condition while doing so, and returned a verdict in favor of the physician.