Truck Driver Wins Verdict Against Gary Hospital After IV Placed in Foot Led to Amputation

Hetep Bilal 'Franklyn' Neter-Nu, a truck driver, went to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana, on July 27, 2015, with nausea and vomiting. He was given fluids and medication through an IV. His nurse, Morgan Mittler, twice found the line detached from his arm. She then placed it in his right foot, without a doctor's order for that site and, according to the Indiana Supreme Court's account of the record, without training to do so.

The next day Neter-Nu complained of pain in the foot. The nurse paged the physician, Dr. Zainab Abbas, and an x-ray showed no fracture and no soft-tissue swelling. On July 29 a nurse saw signs of 'IV infiltration' in the foot, and the following day's nursing note recorded slight bruising. Dr. Abbas discharged him on July 30 with instructions to return if his symptoms persisted or worsened.

He rode a bus for sixteen hours to Sioux City, Iowa, where his employer had taken his truck, and stayed in a hotel for three days with the foot elevated. When he went to Mercy Medical Center, several toes on his right foot were black and had no blood flow. Doctors there judged the foot unsalvageable and sent him to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where his right leg was amputated below the knee on August 19, 2015.

A medical review panel had found that the evidence did not support a breach of the standard of care, so the case went to Lake Superior Court against the hospital, the nurse and the doctor on the theory that the IV placement and the failure to recognize and treat the injured foot caused the amputation. The suit alleged the hospital was vicariously liable for its employees. A two-week jury trial was held in October and November 2022, before Judge Bruce D. Parent. The jury returned a verdict of $11 million against all three defendants.

Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act limited what could be collected. Because the care took place in 2015, the pre-2019 statutory cap of $1.25 million applied, and the trial court reduced the judgment to that figure. It added $79,993.40 in prejudgment interest.

The defendants appealed. On June 11, 2024, the Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a new trial, citing the denial of the hospital's motion for partial judgment on the evidence, the refusal of a superseding-cause instruction, and evidentiary rulings. Neter-Nu's lawyers at Cohen & Malad, David Cutshaw, Gabriel Hawkins, Justin Kuhn and Edward Mulligan V, along with co-counsel Keith Michaels of Lewis Wagner, sought transfer, and the Indiana Supreme Court took the case.

On June 26, 2025, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals decision and affirmed the jury verdict. It agreed the trial court should have granted the hospital's motion on direct liability and on vicarious liability for anyone other than the doctor and nurse, but held that error did not require a new trial. It upheld the jury instructions and the evidence rulings, and sent the case back only to enter that partial judgment and to recalculate prejudgment interest on each defendant's statutory share.