Won a unanimous defense verdict for a hospital against negligence claims in a $55 million trial in eastern Kentucky.

WTO attorneys were hired just three weeks before trial to represent a hospital in a case involving a 22-year-old patient treated for pneumonia, a blocked kidney, and critically low potassium. The plaintiff alleged the hospital halted the patient’s potassium replenishment in violation of physician orders. At discharge, the plaintiff was prescribed medication that carried an FDA warning to avoid use in patients with low potassium. Shortly after the patient took her first dose, she went into cardiac arrest that left her severely disabled. The plaintiff demanded $55 million.

In the 11-day trial, WTO lawyers demonstrated that the hospital met the standard of care and the plaintiff’s cardiac arrest was not caused by low potassium, but rather a rare heart condition. This was the longest trial in the county in the past 30 years. The jury took a little over an hour to unanimously agree that the hospital and the co-defendant doctor did nothing wrong.