Lawyers at DBS successfully litigate a wide variety of civil cases and argue appeals in some of the most challenging jurisdictions in the country.
DBS Obtains a Defense Verdict in Cook County
Physician and Practice Group
Outcome:Defense Verdict
On May 28, 2026, Michael J. Borree and Quinn P. Boyle obtained a defense verdict for the firm’s clients, an emergency medicine physician and emergency medicine practice group, following a two-week trial before Hon. Scott McKenna in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The case involved a 75-year-old woman transported by ambulance to the emergency room of a local community hospital with complaints of severe chest pain, syncope, and shortness of breath. The initial evaluation conducted by the emergency room physician did not reveal concern for acute coronary syndrome. With no evidence for acute coronary syndrome, plaintiff’s experts claimed that a CT angiogram should have been ordered, which would have demonstrated an aortic dissection.
Two hours following arrival in the emergency department, the patient’s complaint of a headache prompted the emergency medicine physician to order a CT scan of the head. The CT scan demonstrated concern for an acute brain bleed. Without neurosurgery services available at the community-based hospital, the defendant physician transferred the patient to a local, university-based hospital. Two days following transfer, the patient rapidly decompensated and died. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as being an aortic dissection.
DBS’ attorneys presented expert opinion testimony from an emergency medicine physician that a CT angiogram was not required to be ordered by the firm’s client. Expert causation testimony was presented from a cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon.
The firm’s attorneys presented causation testimony demonstrating that the dissection occurred within minutes of the patient’s death, and thus, the dissection was not present while the patient was under the care of the emergency medicine physician. Testimony was also presented from the defense experts that the chest pain complained of by the patient was stress-induced, and not caused by an aortic dissection.
After plaintiff’s attorneys requested $2.7 million in closing arguments for the surviving husband and three adult children, the jury returned a verdict for the defendants in under two hours.