Brennan Burtker LLC congratulates Partners Lee Williams and Elizabeth Polit on securing a defense verdict on behalf of their client, a cardiologist, after a 3-week medical malpractice trial before the Honorable Kevin G. Costello in the McHenry County Circuit Court of Illinois. Plaintiff claimed that the Defendant cardiologist deviated from the standard of care by failing to communicate to the attending physician that a transthoracic echocardiogram could not rule out sub-acute endocarditis and for failing to recommend a transesophageal echocardiogram. As a result, the patient passed away from Staphylococcus lugdunensis endocarditis. The Defense argued that the cardiologist did not have a duty to communicate that a transthoracic echocardiogram could not rule out sub-acute endocarditis and recommend the more sensitive test of a transesophageal echocardiogram to the attending physician. The Defense further argued that there was no evidence of vegetation, regurgitation, or stenosis on the transthoracic echocardiogram interpreted by the Defendant cardiologist and therefore, the standard of care did not require the Defendant cardiologist to recommend a transesophageal echocardiogram, which is more invasive. Finally, the Defense argued that the sole proximate cause of the patient’s injuries and/or death was the endocarditis and not any action or inaction on the part of the Defendant cardiologist. The Plaintiff asked the jury to award her $8,321,917.37. The Jury returned a verdict of not guilty for the Defendant cardiologist.