An 11-year-old lawsuit finally came to an end in St. Clair County, Ill., when the jury entered a $1 million verdict for the medical malpractice-wrongful death of 71-year-old Margaret Janet Brown. The case stemmed from a 2002 coronary artery bypass surgery that failed.
In this case, the wrongful death-medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against a Bellville, Ill., anesthesiologist. The doctor named as a defendant was Daniel P. Gillen of St. Clair Hospital Anesthesia. St. Elizabeth’s Hospital was also named as a defendant in the case, which was filed in 2003.
The lawsuit alleged negligence causing the death of Brown. According to the complaint, Dr. Gillen chose not to first obtain a consent to use a Swan-Ganz catheter during the coronary artery bypass surgery. The Swan-Ganz catheter is used in surgery to measure a patient’s blood flow output. The lawsuit also claimed that the anesthesiologist chose not to properly monitor the catherization during Brown’s surgery.