PHYSICIAN
HIT WITH $9.7 MILLION VERDICT
(As reported in the Law Bulletin 9/1995)
By Mike Austin
Law Bulletin staff writer
A Cook County judge entered a $9.7 million verdict on Monday
in favor of a boy born mentally retarded allegedly because
his mother's HMO physician failed to manage her obstetrics
care properly.
A Circuit court jury on Friday found Dr. Alphonsa Antony
negligent in her role as Denise Love's primary care physician
and awarded damages of $9,967,693 for 6-year-old Anthony
Thomas. Circuit Judge Thomas P. Quinn presided over
the eight-day trial.
Antony was acting as Love's HMO "gatekeeper,"
the physician responsible for coordinating and approving
all specialist care, such as obstetrics, and for managing
costs, according to the plaintiff's' attorney, Kurt D. Lloyd.
The arrangement was part of a Chicago HMO contract, and
all treatment was done at EHS Christ Hospital and Medical
Center in Oak Lawn, he said.
Love went to Antony for a pregnancy diagnosis on Aug. 26,
1988, Lloyd said. The test came back positive, and
Antony referred the mother to an obstetrician, who was supposed
to monitor the woman's pregnancy and report back to the
primary care physician, he said.
An ultrasound test approved through Antony's office determined
that the mother's due date was Nov. 23, 1988, Lloyd said.
But Antony never received a copy of the report; only the
obstetrician did, he said.
The obstetrician later referred the mother back to Antony
for blood-sugar tests on Sept. 29, Oct. 11, Nov. 14 and
25, Lloyd said. Each report - all of which contained
information that the woman had uncontrolled gestational
diabetes - was initialed by Antony, then mailed to the obstetrician,
he said.
The ultrasound also contained indications that the pregnant
woman had diabetes, Lloyd said.
As a result of the untreated disease, the boy was delivered
on Nov. 28, 1988, by emergency caesarean section and now
suffers from moderate to severe mental retardation.
Lloyd said he had argued at trial that Antony should have
intervened by calling the obstetrician and developing a
plan to treat the mother's diabetes and deliver the baby
by the due date.
"This is a needless thing," Lloyd said of the
boy's condition. "A simple telephone call by
the HMO doctor would have saved the child from injury, and
now he will required life-long care."
But Antony's attorney, William V. Johnson, said his client
was not responsible for the pregnant woman's treatment and
was found responsible for the boy's condition only "because
she got paperwork as a result of being a part of an HMO."
Johnson said his client admits that treatment was lacking,
but maintains that it was not because of negligence.
She was only responsible for administering blood tests and
handling costs, Johnson said she claims. Primary care
responsibilities had been transferred to the obstetrician,
Dr. Varsha Upadhyaya, who settled before the trial began
last week for his insurance policy limit of $1 million.
That amount will be set off against the jury's award, Lloyd
said.
"In any event it was a situation where the jury expected
more of a doctor than the medical community expects of a
doctor," Johnson said about Antony. "In
other words, my doctor wasn't treating the patient."
Upadhyaya could not be reached for comment.
The case is American National Bank, etc., v. Alphonsa
Antony, M.D., et al., No. 90 L 13655.
