Lake County Jury Finds Anesthesiologist Liable in 12-Year-Old's Death During Surgery at Condell Medical Center
After trial: The $7.5 million verdict was reduced to a $6.3 million judgment by setoffs for the surgeon's $1 million settlement and the hospital's $200,000 settlement. The Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, affirmed that judgment on June 20, 2008, rejecting a Good Samaritan Act defense.
Won by Law Offices of Robert G. Black and Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C..
A 12-year-old boy died during surgery to repair a cut at Condell Medical Center in Libertyville in December 1999. A Lake County jury returned a $7.5 million wrongful death verdict against the surgeon and the anesthesiologist in February 2006. After credit for co-defendant settlements, a $6.3 million judgment stood, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed it in 2008.
What happened
On December 14, 1999, Darlene Muno took her 12-year-old son to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville to have a cut treated after he fell at home. The boy was an A student who collected baseball cards and followed the Chicago Wolves. He died that day on the operating room table.
His parents, Darlene and Barton Muno, sued as co-administrators of his estate. They named the surgeon who repaired the wound, Dr. Andrew Kontrick, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Dale Gordon, and the hospital. Their theory, as Pioneer Press reported it, was that the child was given an antibiotic he was allergic to and then anesthesia, even after it was evident he was having trouble breathing. Attorney Michael Schostok put the claim this way: both doctors failed to recognize the child's developing respiratory distress and failed to treat it.
The defense disputed all of it. Gordon's lawyer, Rodney VanAusdal, told the paper the boy died in spite of everything Gordon did to save him, and noted that a Lake County coroner's inquest had ruled the death accidental without fixing a precise cause. Kontrick's lawyer, Richard Clark, said his client acted appropriately and that the emotional weight of the case had colored the verdict.
Condell settled separately with the family for $200,000. The claims against the two doctors, along with Gordon's practice group, Lake County Anesthesiologists, went to trial in the Circuit Court of Lake County.
In February 2006 the jury returned a $7.5 million verdict for the Munos. Kontrick then agreed to a $1 million settlement to avoid further litigation, his lawyer said, while Gordon said he would appeal. Schostok said he believed it was the largest wrongful death verdict in Lake County history. Darlene Muno said the verdict would not bring her son back but showed that his death was preventable, and that it brought some closure.
After credit for the settlements of the other defendants, judgment was entered for $6.3 million against Gordon and Lake County Anesthesiologists. They appealed, arguing mainly that the Illinois Good Samaritan Act shielded Gordon because he had chosen not to bill the family. The Appellate Court, Second District, rejected that argument in an opinion issued June 20, 2008. The jury was free to disbelieve Gordon's account of why he did not send a bill, the court said, and there was conflicting testimony about whether he had met the family before surgery and about a long meeting he held with the hospital's anesthesiology department head after the operation. The court affirmed the $6.3 million judgment.
Schostok and David G. Pribyl of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, P.C. in Waukegan, together with Robert G. Black of the Law Offices of Robert G. Black in Naperville, represented the Munos on appeal.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Muno v. Condell Medical Center, 383 Ill. App. 3d 688 (Ill. App. Ct. 2d Dist. 2008)
- 2.Caselaw Access Project copy of Muno v. Condell Medical Center, 383 Ill. App. 3d 688 (2008)·Archived copy
- 3.Pioneer Press (John Roszkowski), 'Jury awards $7.5 million in 1999 child's death', March 16, 2006·Archived copy
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