Mother prevails in death lawsuit.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

A Lane County jury on Friday awarded $1.1 million to the mother of Jill Marie Dieringer, a 19-year-old University of Oregon freshman who died of bacterial meningococcal disease in February 2001.

The jury assessed the award against PeaceHealth, the parent corporation of Sacred Heart Medical Center, which employs three doctors who treated Dieringer. The doctors, William Howell, Marjorie Mathis and Claudia Goulston, were not named in the lawsuit.

The jury cleared Eugene Emergency Physicians of any negligence in Dieringer's death. The physicians' group employs two doctors, John Wong and Mary Budke, who treated Dieringer in the emergency room before her admission to the hospital.

The jury awarded $1 million for noneconomic damages, such as emotional pain suffered by Dieringer's mother, and $100,000 in compensation for economic loss her mother sustained because of Dieringer's death. The lawsuit sought a total of $2.5 million.

The suit alleges that the emergency room medical staff at Sacred Heart was negligent for failing to properly diagnose her symptoms until it was too late; failing to do a spinal tap to test her spinal fluid, which would have told them that she had the potentially fatal condition, until it was too late; failing to prescribe antibiotics until she'd been at the hospital for nine hours; and failing to consult specialists.

The 12-day jury trial was long, complex and hard-fought, said Portland lawyer William Gaylord, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Dieringer's mother, Lori Hughes of Brush Prairie, Wash. In total, 19 medical experts testified before the seven-woman, five-man jury.

"This is the case of the little guy prevailing against the odds," Gaylord said. "They employed incredible resources in a relentless effort to crush this client."

Lawyers for PeaceHealth immediately asked Lane County Circuit Judge Maurice Merten to lower the $1 million award for noneconomic damages to $500,000 - the limit set by a legal reform in 1987. Gaylord argued the lower limit is unconstitutional.

Merten set a future hearing on the matter.

"It was never about money," Hughes said after Friday's verdict. "I came down here to be Jill's voice because she can't do it herself. I'm very pleased, sincerely."

Hughes said she never expected to find herself in court, facing a huge medical corporation. She said the damage limits imposed in 1987 in the name of legal "reform" only serve to make it more difficult for individuals to prevail when big firms are at fault. "It's virtually made it impossible," she said.

After the verdict, PeaceHealth lawyer Win Calkins of Eugene said his client is disappointed in the jury's ruling.

"The doctors involved gave compassionate care and did their best," Calkins said. "Jill Dieringer died in a matter of hours from an exceedingly rare and rapidly fatal disease. We continue to express our sympathy to her family for this tragic loss."

In the trial, Gaylord and co-counsel Linda Eyerman called four medical experts to testify that Dieringer's symptoms were a textbook case for the immediate administration of antibiotic drugs that would have saved her life. The failure to give the drugs violated the standard of care for medical professionals and caused Dieringer's death, Gaylord and Eyerman argued.

"This case is really a parent's worst nightmare," Eyerman told jurors in closing arguments of the trial. "You can say the care given to Jill Dieringer in this case was exemplary, because that's what all the defense witnesses said. Or you can say the care was not good enough."

PeaceHealth lawyers argued the diagnosis of Dieringer's condition was much more complicated than depicted by Gaylord and Eyerman. They called witnesses to explain the medical risks of administering antibiotics under the circumstances. Witnesses said the risks were weighed in the doctors' decisions about treating Dieringer.

After the verdict Friday, Gaylord said jurors heard evidence that apparently convinced them the emergency room physicians, Drs. Wong and Budke, were "on the right track" in treating Dieringer, but were thwarted in their efforts to have her admitted to the hospital for more intensive treatment.

"I hope this never happens to somebody else," Hughes said

Dieringer, described as a bright student and an emerging leader in her sorority, wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

She fell ill with flu symptoms early the morning of Feb. 8, 2001, and went to the Sacred Heart emergency room. She was admitted to intensive care about 12:30 p.m., but her condition did not improve and she died about 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 9.

Her death shocked students, who flocked to the UO Health Center with concerns over the rare disease, which is fatal in about 10 percent of the 3,000 cases reported annually.