Jury orders Mercy Springfield to pay $28.9 million in negligence lawsuit
A jury has ordered Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities to pay $28.9 million to a Springfield woman who argued the health system's failure to diagnose her rare disorder in a timely manner amounted to negligence.
As a result of the delay, according to court documents, the woman's Wilson's disease became more severe, to the extent that she now must be fed through a tube.
Emilee Williams — who was born in 1992, according to court records — sued Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities and one of its employees, Dr. Elene Pilapil, in Greene County Circuit Court in July 2015. Pilapil, who specializes in internal medicine, was later dismissed from the suit.
A trial began in late February. On Friday, the jury ruled in favor of Williams after about two hours of deliberation.
Reached by the News-Leader, an attorney with the law firm of Strong-Garner-Bauer, which represented Williams, declined to comment and said Williams herself did not wish to speak to the media.
Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities is a component, along with Mercy Hospital Springfield, of Mercy Springfield Communities, which is itself a division of Chesterfield-based Mercy Health.
Mercy Springfield issued the following statement to the News-Leader: "Emilee remains in our prayers as she battles this hereditary disease. Mercy would like to thank the jurors for their time spent hearing testimony and considering the evidence. We continue to believe the care we provided was appropriate and will consider our legal options."
According to Williams' lawsuit, she was in school pursuing a doctorate degree in physical therapy when, in December 2012, she went to see Pilapil to report experiencing fatigue, tremors, panic attacks, insomnia and other issues.
Williams and her mother, who attended the exam, insisted that Williams receive an MRI and neurological workup, according to the lawsuit.
Pilapil, however, declined to do so, and stated that Williams' problems were related to anxiety and depression, according to the lawsuit. Pilapil adjusted Williams' use of medication she was taking for those conditions, the lawsuit said.
For the next five months, according to the lawsuit, Williams and her mother "repeatedly told Pilapil about her ongoing issues to no avail."
In May 2013, and then again the next month, Williams returned to Pilapil and reported that Williams' condition had deteriorated, with issues such as acting drunk, falling due to balance problems and difficulty with handwriting due to tremors, according to the lawsuit. Both times, Williams and her mother requested neurological testing.
In August 2013, according to the lawsuit, "in response to continued pleas from Emilee and her mother," Pilapil ordered an MRI of Williams' brain. The MRI showed severe damage to Williams' basal ganglia, caused by Wilson's disease, according to the lawsuit.
Wilson's disease "is a disorder that causes too much copper to accumulate in vital organs, such as the liver and brain," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit stated that "as a result of the delay in treatment and diagnosis of Emilee's Wilson's disease, she now suffers from severe Wilson's disease and the sequela of Wilson's disease, including but not limited to severe brain damage, tetraplegia, dysarthria, dystonia, dysphagia, severe motor and speech impairment, tremors, sporadic contracture of her extremities, and she has to be fed through a PEG tube."
The lawsuit argued that Mercy Springfield was negligent for, among other things, failing to order a neurological consultation and MRI in a timely manner and failing to review William's prior medical history.
Mercy Springfield argued in court documents that Williams hadn't proved that the health system deviated from its normal standard of care, and that Williams' "medical records speak for themselves."
The $28.9 million judgment includes:
• $511,000 for past economic damages, including past medical damages
• $1 million for past non-economic damages
• $21 million for future medical damages
• $3.2 million for future economic damages, excluding future medical damages
• $3.2 million for future non-economic damages.
Williams attended Glendale High School, where she played soccer, according to News-Leader archives.
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