Iowa Jury Awards $29.5 Million Over Fatal Reaction to Contrast Dye
Won by Trial Lawyers for Justice.
Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.
What happened
On June 9, 2015, Carrie DeJongh, a 40-year-old woman from Hull in northwest Iowa, went to Sioux Center Health in Sioux Center for a CT scan that required an injection of iodinated contrast dye. Within minutes of the injection she went into anaphylactic shock, a severe allergic reaction that can close the airway and collapse blood pressure if it is not treated immediately.
The physician treating her, Dr. Roy T. Slice, gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately take her vital signs or administer epinephrine, the standard emergency treatment for anaphylaxis. She lost consciousness. She was taken to Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and died there the same day, leaving a husband and four children, the youngest of them four years old.
DeJongh's family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Slice for medical negligence, alleging that the delay in recognizing and treating the reaction cost her life. Both defendants denied the negligence allegations. The case, numbered LACV026141, was tried to a Sioux County jury in Orange City, the county seat, beginning June 4, 2018.
On Wednesday, June 13, 2018, the jury returned a verdict of $29.5 million against Sioux Center Health and Dr. Slice. By the trial team's account published the following day, the award broke down as $1.5 million for Carrie DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death, $6 million to her husband for loss of spousal consortium, and $5.5 million to each of the four children for loss of parental consortium.
Nicholas C. Rowley and Dominic Pechota of Trial Lawyers for Justice represented the DeJongh family at trial, along with Matt J. Reilly and Rod Ritner, according to the Iowa State Bar Association's civil jury verdict report for the case. Speaking to The Associated Press after the verdict, Rowley said DeJongh went into anaphylactic shock and lost consciousness after receiving the contrast dye, and that Dr. Slice gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately take her vital signs or give her epinephrine, which could have countered the shock.
No appeal, appellate opinion or remittitur has turned up in connection with case number LACV026141 since the June 2018 verdict, and there is no public record of what was ultimately paid. The $29.5 million stands as the jury returned it.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.KCCI Des Moines carrying the Associated Press report, updated June 14, 2018: the Sioux County jury's $29.5 million negligence award, returned Wednesday, to the family of 40-year-old Carrie DeJongh, who died June 9, 2015 after receiving the dye at Sioux Center Health; names 'her attorney Nicholas Rowley' and quotes him on the antihistamine, the vital signs and the epinephrine; notes the doctor and Sioux Center Health denied the allegations
- 2.Iowa State Bar Association civil jury verdict report, DeJongh et al. v. Sioux Center Health and Roy T. Slice, M.D., case LACV026141: Sioux County, medical malpractice, trial date June 4, 2018, plaintiff's counsel Nicholas C. Rowley, Dominic Pechota, Matt J. Reilly and Rod Ritner, defense counsel Joseph L. Fitzgibbons
- 3.N'West Iowa REVIEW, June 13, 2018: local coverage of the $29.5 million wrongful death award to the DeJongh family
- 4.Oolman Funeral Home obituary for Carrie Ann DeJongh, age 40, of Hull, Iowa: died Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- 5.Trial Lawyers for Justice (firm announcement)
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