WM’s Frank Morrissey Secures $9.4 Million Verdict for Severe Gastric Bypass-Related Injuries
WM Attorney Francis P. “Frank” Morrissey, as lead counsel, secured a $9.4 million jury verdict for a 46-year-old female with four children who became permanently disabled in February 2010 as a result of severe bleeding after an elective gastric bypass surgery.
The defendants in the lawsuit were surgeons who provided care for the woman at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. Morrissey previously reached a $5 million settlement with the hospital.
Morrissey contended that the patient’s complications were due to the combination of blood thinners employed, namely Arixtra and Heparin, which led to bleeding throughout Kathryn Parker’s digestive system. The bleeding necessitated further surgeries and led to kidney failure and eventual cardiac arrest.
As a result of the cardiac event, Parker’s brain was deprived of oxygen for more than 10 minutes. Her heart was not shocked during that time, which resulted in permanent injury and disability.
According to testimony in the case, the drug Arixtra has no known antagonist to remove it from a person’s system, so it remains there for between 17 and 21 hours. The lawsuit claimed Parker already was taking the drug prior to its use in the surgery.
Had the surgeons understood the properties of the drug, he argued, they could have delayed surgery for a couple of days and avoided the complications and any permanent brain injury.
The jury verdict included $5.9 million for medical expenses, $2.75 million for loss of a normal life and $750,000 for pain and suffering.
Morrissey’s settlement a year earlier with Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital did not acknowledge any wrongdoing on its part. An article in the Feb. 4, 2014, edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin describes that settlement and the background of the case in further detail.
Morrissey has been recognized by Illinois Super Lawyers and Illinois Leading Lawyers as an effective trial lawyer who has built a reputation representing seriously injured persons in medical malpractice lawsuits, product liability and personal injury actions. To learn more, please view the professional credentials of Frank Morrissey on this website.