Jury Awards $2.6 Million in Blessing Malpractice Suit
Quincy Herald Whig, 02/11/2000By Ann Pierceall
An Adams County jury this morning found Blessing Hospital negligent in a medical malpractice suit and awarded a Payson woman $2.6 million in the 1996 death of her husband.
The 10-man, two-woman jury deliberated for 12 hours before deciding Blessing Hospital was negligent in its care of 44-year-old Jerry Allensworth, who died in the hospital's emergency room from a pulmonary embolism on June 17, 1996. He left a wife, Debbie, and four children.
The jury found that Dr. Michael Feely, a former Quincy neurosurgeon, was not neglignet. Allensworth's family was asking for $7.7 million. The award is the largest in county history.
The jury ordered the hospital to pay $2.5 million to Allensworth's estate for damages due to the loss of income and companionship, and another $100,000 for pain and suffering Allensworth endured before he died.
Blessing Hospital has 30 days to appeal the ruling. Attorneys involved in the case were not available for comment after the late-morning verdict.
Allensworth died after an undetected blood clot moved from his leg to a lung. The lawsuit alleged that neglect, lack of communication and lack of appropriate action by Dr. Feely and Blessing Hospital nurses contributed to Allensworth's death.
Jeffrey Kroll of Chicago, the attorney for the Allensworths, told jurors in closing arguments Wednesday that "this man would have lived if not for this negligence."
Kroll told the jury that nurses had failed to tell Dr. Feely about symptoms indicating a blood clot, and that Dr. Feely did not pay close enough attention to the patient to detect the problem on his own. Kroll said medical personnel may not have meant to harm Allensworth, but "they dropped the ball."
Quincy attorney Gena Awerkamp, representing Blessing Hospital, disputed that image in her closing arguments. Awerkamp said, Debbie Allensworth believes "somebody has done something wrong because this shouldn't have happened. She's right. In a perfect world, this shouldn't have happened."
Awerkamp asked the jury to look at what the defendants saw as they were treating Allenswoth. She said testimony indicated that Allensworth showed none of the symptoms of a person with a blood clot forming.
Allenswoth entered Blessing Hospital June 11 to be treated for an infection in a surgical incision in his back. He was released June 16, but was brought to the hospital's emergency room the next day by his family, which was when the embolism was found. Allensworth died in the emergency room.
Dr. Feely's attorney, Richard Narup of Springfield, asked the jury to separate the actions of the nurses and the doctor.
"The actions of the hospital are not the actions of Dr. Feely, just like the actions of Dr. Feely are not the actions of the hospital. They're separate. What did Dr. Feely know about? What did he do? You've got to look at the day-to-day actions," he said.
