On January 17, 2024, Mary Simon, John Simon, and Erica Slater secured a $10,018,689.85 verdict for our client in a medical malpractice case in St. Louis County, MO. This obstetric maternal injury case was tried a year ago and resulted in a hung jury.
In 2016, our 18-year-old client underwent a routine c-section after complete and pushing for 2 hours. The attending doctor and 4th-year resident encountered a deep extension on the left side of the uterine incision during the surgery. After suturing, they backfilled the bladder to check for injury. When they didn’t find any injury to the bladder, they closed her abdomen.
Six days post-op, our client was back with high fevers and vomiting. Thirteen days post-op, a urologist was called in and eventually diagnosed a stitched left ureter – our client’s left ureter was completely obstructed on the left side. The urologist stented and re-stented the ureter 4 times over the next few months, and ultimately decided that a stent could not fix her damaged ureter.
Eight months post-op, our client underwent a left ureteral reimplantation procedure. This procedure permanently distorted our client’s bladder anatomy, and most significantly, it removed the valve of the ureter that keeps urine down in the bladder. Without the valve, our client’s urine refluxes up into her left kidney. In addition to the distorted bladder anatomy and permanent reflux, the ureter injury caused our client to experience voiding dysfunction and urine retention, leaving her with recurrent UTIs and kidney infection. For the last seven years, her voiding dysfunction and infections have gotten worse. She is required to intermittently self-catheterize for the rest of her life. She is 25 years old.
In the evening hours of January 17, 2024, the jury awarded our client a total $10,018,689.85, including damages for past and future economic and non-economic damages.
For additional information, contact Mary Simon at The Simon Firm, MSimon@simonlawpc.com. The Simon Law firm in St. Louis, recognized as one of the “winningest firms in the United States” by The National Law Journal. The Simon Law Firm has earned over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements nationwide since its founding in 2000.
