Brennan Burtker LLC congratulates Partners Mark M. Brennan and Jonathan Cavins on securing a successful defense verdict on December 5 for a pediatric emergency physician and a leading university medical center in a medical malpractice trial alleging death of a 2-month-old.  The infant presented to the emergency room with a change in appetite, fever, congestion, diarrhea, vomiting, tachycardia and tachypnea.   The emergency room physician diagnosed an upper respiratory infection and viral enteritis, and discharged the infant with instructions to the mother on supportive care.  At discharge, the infant remained febrile, but his tachycardia and tachypnea resolved. Plaintiff claimed the pediatric emergency physician failed to order tests in the emergency room and hospitalize a 2-month-old for pneumonia and dehydration.  The infant was found to suddenly decompensate in his mother’s arms the next morning and died hours 22 hours after discharge.  The Indiana Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be bronchopneumonia with significant dehydration, both of which the plaintiff contended were not diagnosed and treated in the emergency room and required hospitalization.  The plaintiff requested $15 million from a Cook County jury for wrongful death and survival damages.  Brennan and Cavins argued that the emergency room care was appropriate at all times, and that the infant did not have either pneumonia or dehydration in the emergency room or at the time of death.  The defense argued that the Indiana Medical Examiner had no pathological or histologic basis for its autopsy diagnoses, and that the infant likely encountered a sudden unexplained infant death under unclear circumstance.  The case was tried over 3 weeks before Judge Bridget A. Mitchell, the jury returned a defense verdict in less than one hour.