Date: 01-17-2000

Case Style: Jeremy Sheeks, et al. v. Heartland Regional Medical Center; George Douglas Mulder, M.D.; and Edwad H. Andres, M.D.

Case Number: 398-193CC

Judge: Randall Jackson

Court: Circuit Court, Buchanan County, Missouri

Plaintiff's Attorney: J.C. Hambrick, Jr. of the Law Office of J.C. Hambrick, Jr., Kansas City, Missouri and Martin Bauman of Bauman Law Offices, St. Joseph, Missouri.

Defendant's Attorney: William A. Lynch and Ronald D. Marney of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, L.L.P., Kansas City, Missouri

Description: Medical malpractice - Lack of adequate infection prevention and control procedures were claimed by the plaintiffs to have been the reason for their father's untimely death. Plaintiffs claimed that their father contracted and ultimately died from an MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus) infection in St. Joseph's Heartland Regional Medical Center after a hernia surgery in 1995. Plaintiffs also claimed that the hospital's failure to administer ordered doses of antibiotics, probably Vancomycin, contributed to their father's death.

Defendant hospital denied wrongdoing and claimed that the patient died as a result of an intra-abdominal infection As a result of an opening in his small intestine occurring either during or after his hernia surgery. Also, defendant hospital claimed that MRSA is a bacteria commonly found in virtually every hospital in the country and the patient's MRSA pneumonia was not a result of improper infection control practices at the hospital and did not cause the patient's death.

Plaintiffs were three children of the patient. They sought $6.2 million in damages which included special damages caused as a result of their father's death because he was the primary caregiver for his adult plaintiff son who was mentally and physically disabled from an automobile accident.

Outcome: Defendant's verdict.

Plaintiff's Experts: Dr. Armar Strauss, M.D., Pacific Palisades, California, internist and Dr. Larry Rumans, M.D., Topeka, Kansas

Defendant's Experts: Dr. Ed Septimus, Houston, Texas, infectious disease specialist; Dr. Dan Musher, Houston, Texas, infectious disease specialist; and Dr. John Flaherty Chicago, Illinois, infectious disease specialist.

Comments: None