Won a jury defense verdict in Denver District Court in a medical malpractice case for an orthopedic spine surgeon.
A plaintiff with a diseased cervical spinal cord claimed a screw that WTO's client, a Colorado orthopedic spine surgeon, had placed in his cervical spinal canal caused him to have neurological deficits following surgery. WTO defended the doctor on both standard of care and causation, arguing that the complications were not caused by the screw, but by the mechanics of the surgery and the diseased spinal cord the plaintiff had before surgery. The plaintiff's demand was for several million dollars, including eight years of pretrial interest that had been accruing. On September 27, 2010, the jury delivered a defense verdict in favor of the doctor.