McNabola Law Group obtained a $1.3 million verdict on behalf of a Peoria man who required a shoulder replacement after a doctor failed to diagnose a severe infection.
“We are very pleased with the verdict,” McNabola Law Group founding partner Mark McNabola said. “Our team put together a comprehensive strategy and excellent roster of expert witnesses. We’re grateful the jury returned a verdict to help our client through this traumatic time.”
The firm’s client, a Peoria resident, is a fitness enthusiast who underwent a steroid injection in July 2015 to treat biceps tenosynovitis.
Within three days, the client developed significant pain and decreased range of motion in his arm. An ultrasound indicated a hematoma at the injection site. Over the next few weeks, the man’s pain increased significantly as his range of motion decreased even further.
The client visited an orthopedic surgeon in Peoria, Ill., multiple times, but the doctor failed to consider infection among his differential diagnoses.
An MRI scan taken five weeks after the initial steroid injection revealed significant deterioration, damage and fluid in the client’s shoulder joint. The physician never sent fluid for testing.
The client sought a second opinion in October 2015, and was diagnosed with an infection. The damage to his shoulder joint was so severe that he required a shoulder replacement in late 2017.
McNabola Law Group partners Ruth Degnan and Donald McGarrah filed a medical negligence lawsuit on behalf of the man in Peoria County in 2017. Degnan and McGarrah tried the case before a jury this year and received a favorable verdict of $1.3 million on Sept. 27, 2019.
“Our client will have limited range of motion for the rest of his life,” McGarrah said. “He exercised daily and was passionate about fitness-related activities. Now, he experiences stiffness and pain and is unable to engage in the same activities he previously enjoyed.”
McGarrah continued: “This has been an extraordinarily stressful situation for our client and his wife. He was very grateful to the jury and can now move on with the rest of his life.”
The defense, represented by Kevin Miller and Matt Thompson of Quinn Johnston Henderson Pretorius & Cerulo, argued the chance of infection following steroid injection was so remote that the doctor’s failure to consider it was within the standard of care.
The Hon. Judge Michael P. McCuskey presided in the case.
