Smith Earns Not Guilty Verdict for General Surgeon in Grundy County

Matthew Smith Earns Not Guilty Verdict for General Surgeon in Grundy County

Defendant surgeon was accused of negligently perforating Plaintiff‘s bowel during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy resulting in three additional surgeries for bowel repair, bowel resection and hernia. Plaintiff argued that the access point for the original surgery was too close to a scar from a prior appendectomy, and that the defendant doctor therefore should have known there might be bowel adhesed to the abdominal wall where the access needle went in. Defendant argued that bowel injury is a known risk of the procedure, and that she exercised appropriate clinical judgment in both the location and means of access.

After 4 days of trial Plaintiff asked the jury for $762,000. Jury returned a verdict in Defendant‘s favor after approximately 45 minutes of deliberations.

Mitch Gilfillan co-chaired the defense.