Swartwout
Hylla
Madison County Circuit Judge David Hylla is set to open the trial of a 2007 wrongful death case against Gateway Regional Medical Center on Monday.
The case, brought by the administrator of a woman's estate, alleges that the staff at Gateway and one of its doctors misread a test, causing a misdiagnosis of a woman's fatal heart problems.
The defendants deny that they were negligent.
The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages and costs per each of its counts.
The trial is sent to begin at 9 a.m.
According to the complaint, the deceased, Julie Banks, had a heart test performed at Gateway in August 2006 that was read as normal.
Two months later, she came to the emergency room at the hospital complaining of intense pain in her left arm, although she had not been injured.
Banks allegedly had a history of high cholesterol and was on medication for it.
Defendant Dr. Jeffrey Arendell allegedly examined her.
He ordered her to undergo a second ECG test.
It again came out allegedly normal.
Arendell then released Banks.
She died Oct. 5, 2006 of a heart attack.
The administrator of her estate, Larry Tremain, alleges that Arendell was negligent in not admitting Banks to the hospital and that Gateway is liable for Arendell's alleged negligence as his employer.
The hospital argues it is not liable because Arendell interpreted the test results, not the hospital, so it had no hand in the alleged negligence.
Arendell also denies that he was negligent in his treatment of Banks.
In September 2009, a third party complaint was filed in the case by Gateway against Illinois/Indiana EM-I Medical Services, S.C. of Springfield.
In that complaint, Gateway seeks contractual indemnity, alleging that that its contract with Illinois/Indiana EM-I was still in place at the time of the incident.
The hospital contends that Illinois/Indiana EM-I is bound to indemnify the hospital.
Gateway also has claims for contribution pending against the company.
In April of this year, Arendell filed a claim for set-off against Tremain.
Tremain is represented by Martin Megnarelli.
Gateway, sued as Granite City Illinois Hospital Company LLC, d/b/a Gateway Regional Medical Center, is represented by Stephen Potter.
Arendell is represented by Charles Swartwout.
The case is Madison case number 07-L-848.