ALS Patient's Family Awarded $24 Million After Fatal Stem Cell Injection
After trial: Dr. Meraglia said the day of the verdict that she would pursue an appeal promptly, citing pretrial and trial evidentiary rulings, so the $24 million is not yet settled. No notice of appeal or appellate docket could be confirmed: Washington's public case search does not answer automated lookups, so the appeal's status needs a manual check. Nothing has been reduced to date. Washington does not cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, the statutory cap having been struck down in Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp. (1989), so no reduction is expected on that basis. Whether the judgment has been paid, and what insurance or assets stand behind it, has not been publicly reported; Seattle Stem Cell Center has since closed and its owner now runs a different business.
Michael Trujillo, a 62-year-old electrician from Colorado, was diagnosed with ALS in 2017 and sought treatment at Seattle Stem Cell Center after seeing the clinic's online marketing. In April 2019 a physician at the clinic gave him a spinal injection without imaging guidance while he was taking a blood thinner, causing catastrophic bleeding and brain herniation, and he was pronounced dead the next day. A King County jury returned a unanimous $24 million verdict for his estate, his widow and their five adult children, finding that negligence in his care caused his death. The clinic's owner, Dr. Tami Meraglia, said she intends to appeal.
What happened
Michael Trujillo ran an electrical company in Colorado and kept working full time as an electrician after a 2017 diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, still hiking and exercising often. In early 2019 he heard about Seattle Stem Cell Center through online marketing that promoted stem cell treatments for a long list of serious medical conditions, including ALS. He took a free consultation with the center and came away hopeful the therapy could help, and he underwent a first treatment in February 2019. He was taking Coumadin, a blood-thinning medication, and the family's lawsuit says he told the center so.
He returned to Seattle in early April 2019 for a second procedure. The plan had been an intravenous infusion, but the physician who treated him that day switched to a spinal, or epidural, injection. It was given without imaging guidance to confirm needle placement, while Trujillo was on the blood thinner and had high blood pressure, a combination that sharply raises the risk of bleeding. Evidence at trial showed the injection caused catastrophic bleeding that progressed to brain herniation. He was pronounced dead a day later. According to the family's complaint, no one at the clinic told him to stop the anticoagulant before either procedure.
His widow, Carmen Trujillo, and their five adult children filed suit in 2022 in King County Superior Court. The defendants included US Stemology, the company that owned Seattle Stem Cell Center in Lower Queen Anne, its owner Dr. Tami Meraglia, and other Seattle medical spas and stem cell clinics. Dr. Meraglia told KIRO Newsradio after the verdict that she had not seen the patient, was not consulted about the treatment, and that a different doctor who worked at the clinic performed the injection. Carmen Trujillo testified on what would have been the couple's 46th wedding anniversary. 'We flew to Seattle with hope, and I flew home alone,' she told the jurors.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict, finding that negligence in Trujillo's care caused his death, and set damages at $24 million: $4 million to his estate, $5 million to Carmen Trujillo, and $3 million to each of their five children, who range in age from 32 to 46. Dylan Cohon of Swanson Gardner Meyers Cohon PLLC, one of the attorneys for the family, told The Seattle Times he had suggested a lower number, 'but the jury was extraordinarily moved by the family and quite unimpressed by the clinic.' Cohon also said that 'medical providers who market treatments to vulnerable patients need to be honest about whether there is any scientific evidence that the treatments will work.'
The verdict followed a separate consumer-protection case the Washington Attorney General's office brought in 2022 against US Stemology and Dr. Meraglia over deceptive marketing of unproven stem cell treatments for conditions including COVID-19, asthma, muscular dystrophy, stroke and Crohn's disease. That case ended in a court-entered consent decree imposing permanent marketing restrictions. The attorney general's office said at the time that the clinic had treated more than a hundred patients for serious chronic conditions. The decree did not require the company to close, but the clinic did shut down, and a spokesperson for the current attorney general said Meraglia now runs a new company where she practices hormone health.
Dr. Meraglia said the day the verdict came in that she intends to appeal, arguing that rulings before and during the trial kept the jury from hearing evidence the defense wanted to present and that there are 'significant issues for appellate review.'
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Seattle Times (Elise Takahama), March 2, 2026: names Dylan Cohon as one of the attorneys representing the family, and reports the free consultation, the February 2019 first treatment, the April 2019 spinal injection, the Coumadin use, the death a day later, the 2022 filing in King County Superior Court, the defendants including US Stemology and Dr. Tami Meraglia, the $24 million breakdown among the estate, the widow and the five children aged 32 to 46, and the attorney general's consent decree and permanent marketing restrictions.
- 2.MyNorthwest / KIRO Newsradio (Frank Lenzi), February 27, 2026: reports the ALS diagnosis, the clinic's marketing, the switch from an IV plan to an epidural injection without imaging guidance while Trujillo was on a blood thinner with high blood pressure, the catastrophic bleeding and brain herniation, the $24 million verdict, Dr. Meraglia's statements and her stated intent to appeal, and a direct quote from plaintiffs' counsel Dylan Cohon.
- 3.KIRO 7 News, 2026: identifies Dylan Cohon as plaintiffs' counsel and credits Swanson Gardner Meyers Cohon PLLC, reports Dr. Meraglia's account that she was not consulted and did not perform the procedure, and her quote that there are significant issues for appellate review.
- 4.KING 5 News, 2026: reports the unanimous verdict, that the jury found two of the doctors negligent in Trujillo's treatment, the treatment timeline from the free consultation to the April 2019 procedure, and the damages breakdown.
- 5.Washington State Attorney General's Office, 2022: the resolution of the consumer-protection case against US Stemology and Dr. Meraglia, barring them from marketing or taking payment for unproven stem cell treatments and providing restitution to former patients.
- 6.The Niche (Paul Knoepfler), March 2, 2026: corroborates the $24 million verdict, the clinic's ownership by US Stemology, its closure, and the earlier Washington Attorney General case.
More proven verdicts from Swanson Gardner Meyers Cohon PLLC
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