Iowa Jury Awards $27 Million Over Delayed Meningitis Diagnosis
After trial: UnityPoint said after the verdict it was 'exploring all options including an appeal,' and its attorneys filed a post-trial motion for a new trial, which the Dudleys resisted. We could not confirm from any public source how that motion was resolved, whether an appeal was ever docketed, or whether the judgment has been paid, so collectability is recorded as not public. No Iowa appellate court has issued a ruling or opinion in the case in the years since, and there is no public record of a remittitur or of the judgment being reduced, so the jury's award is the outcome of record. The claim accrued in February 2017, before Iowa's noneconomic damages cap for health care providers (Iowa Code section 147.136A) took effect on July 1, 2017, so no statutory cap applied to this award; the same facts today would fall under that cap because the defendants include a hospital.
Won by Trial Lawyers for Justice.
In February 2017, a physician assistant at a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in Des Moines diagnosed Joseph Dudley with the flu despite a negative flu test, sent him home on Tamiflu, and never ordered a complete blood count. Two days later Dudley was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis caused by an undetected heart valve infection, spent eight days in a medically induced coma, and suffered a series of strokes that left him with permanent brain damage, hearing loss, vertigo and nerve damage. A Polk County jury tried the malpractice claim against physician assistant Melanie Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, over a week in November 2022 and returned a $27,000,000 verdict, all of it noneconomic damages. The defense moved for a new trial afterward and UnityPoint said it was weighing an appeal.
What happened
Joseph Dudley went to a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in southeast Des Moines in February 2017 with dizziness, delusions, a headache, a high fever and a cough. A physician assistant, Melanie Choos, ran a flu test that came back negative but diagnosed him with influenza anyway. She sent him home with Tamiflu and a pain reliever and did not order a complete blood count, a basic test that could have pointed toward the infection actually causing his symptoms.
Two days later Dudley's condition had deteriorated so badly that he went to the emergency room at UnityPoint Iowa Methodist Medical Center. Doctors there diagnosed bacterial meningitis stemming from an undetected heart valve infection. He was placed in a medically induced coma and spent eight days in intensive care, during which he suffered a series of strokes. He came out of the coma with permanent brain damage, deafness in his right ear, vertigo, and nerve damage that left his feet and legs numb.
Dudley and his wife, Sarah, sued Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, for medical malpractice. The case, numbered LACL138335, went to trial in the Iowa District Court for Polk County before Judge Scott Beattie from November 15 to November 21, 2022. Devin Kelly, Roxanne Barton Conlin, Nicholas Rowley and Benjamin Novotny represented the Dudleys, with Rowley, founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice, trying the case for the family.
The jury found Choos negligent and returned a verdict of $27,000,000, broken down as $2,500,000 for past loss of function of mind and body and $12,000,000 for future loss of function, plus $2,500,000 for past pain and suffering and $10,000,000 for future pain and suffering. Every dollar of it was noneconomic damages.
After the verdict, a UnityPoint spokesman said the health system strongly disagreed with the result and was 'exploring all options including an appeal.' Rowley told reporters he expected the verdict to hold up, describing the trial record as clean and the judgment as collectible. UnityPoint's attorneys filed a post-trial motion for a new trial, which the plaintiffs resisted. No Iowa appellate court has issued an opinion in the case since, and the $27,000,000 verdict is the outcome of record.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Iowa State Bar Association Civil Jury Verdicts reporter, Dudley v. Central Iowa Hospital, case LACL138335: Polk County, Judge Scott Beattie, trial date November 21, 2022, the four-part noneconomic verdict breakdown totaling $27,000,000, and plaintiff's counsel Devin Kelly, Roxanne Barton Conlin, Nicholas Rowley and Benjamin Novotny
- 2.The Gazette, November 2022: reports the misdiagnosis facts and the $27 million verdict, and quotes 'Dudley's lawyer, Nick Rowley,' identified as founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice
- 3.Courtroom View Network trial coverage, November 2022: confirms Nick Rowley of Trial Lawyers for Justice as plaintiff's counsel, the Polk County venue and case number 05771 LACL138335, the November 15 to November 21, 2022 trial, and Rowley's post-verdict statement that the record was clean and the judgment collectible
- 4.Fox News (Associated Press), November 22, 2022: confirms Nick Rowley, founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice, represented the Dudleys, and reports UnityPoint's statement that it was exploring an appeal
- 5.KCCI Des Moines: interview with Joseph and Sarah Dudley after the verdict on the injuries and their reaction to the trial
More proven verdicts from Trial Lawyers for Justice
All Trial Lawyers for Justice proven verdicts →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.
Richard J. Pellock, 80, had surgery to remove bladder cancer at UnityPoint Health Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in January 2015, and the operation succeeded. Days later he needed a second procedure for a post-surgical complication, and the nurse anesthetist handling that procedure induced anesthesia without first emptying his stomach despite signs he had a full one. Pellock aspirated, developed aspiration pneumonia and respiratory failure, and died. His widow and son sued the anesthesia group and a Dubuque County jury returned a $10 million verdict against it in September 2017, awarded entirely as loss-of-consortium damages. Defense lawyers were reported as saying they would challenge the verdict, but no Iowa appellate decision in the case has ever been published.
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