Ronald Cobb underwent surgery to insert an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill. When the procedure was completed on Feb. 3, 2009, Cobb was 51. Just two hours after the surgery, Cobb suffered a myocardial infarction in the recovery room and passed away.
His family brought a lawsuit alleging that the defendant doctors were negligent in that they withheld his Plavix medication and chose not to perform an angiogram before this surgery. It was claimed that the failure to do the angiogram resulted in simultaneous stent thrombosis in two coronary arteries.
The defendants maintained that discontinuation of Plavix was appropriate under the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines. The defendants contended that Cobb did not require an angiogram. The jury agreed with that proposition and found in favor of the doctors and their practice group.