Spangenberg Shibley & Liber successfully defended a $7 million verdict ($7.7 million with interest) on appeal in a medical malpractice suit, with Partners Stuart E. Scott and Michael P. Lewis handling the trial and Associate Kevin C. Hulick assisting Stuart and Michael in tackling the appeal. Co-Counsel Steve Keefe also tried the case with Stuart and Michael and assisted with all aspects of the appellate briefing.
Ultimately, the team garnered 21 judicial votes in their favor on the appellate issues (including the trial court’s post-trial rulings):
- After winning in trial, three 7th District Court of Appeals justices ruled in Spangenberg’s favor before denying reconsideration.
- All seven Ohio Supreme Court justices rejected hearing the case in April 2025 and again in July 2025.
The Case
The medical malpractice took place in May 2020, when Brian Patrick vomited a significant amount of blood and was taken to an emergency room (ER) by EMS. He was seen in the emergency department (ED) by a resident, who determined he was safe to discharge home, and the attending physician signed off on the resident’s decision.
About 40 hours later, he started vomiting blood again and was rushed to the ER, where he died of a gastrointestinal (GI) rebleed. The Spangenberg team filed the case in March 2021 and argued that Brian should have been admitted to the hospital by the ED attending and received an upper endoscopy within 24 hours of his admission.
The bright red blood indicated there was fresh blood from an opened artery, most likely in the stomach or duodenum. They then would have identified the source of the bleeding and repaired it.
The jury unanimously agreed, and the family was awarded a $7 million verdict against the attending doctor and the doctor’s employer.
Establishing Precedent
In a strategic move, the defendant attending physician did not testify in the case. This led the Spangenberg team to argue in its closing statement that he did not dispute the resident’s testimony during trial. The resident’s testimony included two key pieces of information:
- The medical team included a gastric ulcer in the list of potential diagnoses due to significant daily doses of ibuprofen Brian was taking.
- The standard of care and the only way to rule out a diagnosis of an upper GI bleed and determine the risk for rebleeding is to perform an upper endoscopy within 24 hours.
“This case establishes precedent that the court of appeals and the supreme court recognized: a party in a civil case has the right to comment about another party’s failure to testify under circumstances where you would expect the party to testify to rebut or explain evidence that was admitted into trial,” said Stuart. “In the closing argument, we said the defending doctor must agree with his resident because he did not testify to refute what she said – he agrees they did not rule out a gastric bleed and should have admitted Brian for an urgent upper endoscopy within 24 hours.”
The Results
The jury’s decision supported their closing argument that the standard of care should be one that protects patient safety. Stuart said the firm is proud of Brian’s family for their tenacity over the course of the case; his wife is grateful to the Spangenberg team and glad to fight for a standard of care that will save the lives of other patients who present to the ED with an upper GI bleed in the future.
“At Spangenberg, we believe that to provide the best representation, we need to handle the appeals, especially when they’re based on what happened during the trial,” Stuart said. “We take pride in the fact that after we win the initial verdict, we continue to see the case through by handling the appellate work with the same level of skill, intensity, and preparation as we do when we try the case. We believe this is a critical part of providing the best representation possible for the client.”