St. Elizabeth's and doctors blamed for alleged misdiagnosis

In a recently filed lawsuit, a woman is blaming doctors for causing a man’s mental disability.

Susan Garner filed a lawsuit Jan. 4 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against St. Elizabeth’s Hospital of the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis; Dr. Rachelle Leach and Dr. Anna Voeller.

In her complaint, Garner alleges Samuel Gene Sparks sustained a cerebral vascular injury. Such an injury is characterized by damage to the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. Due to the injury, Sparks suffered from severe disability, experienced pain and suffering, lost his enjoyment of a normal life, incurred medical costs and suffered an impaired earning capacity, according to the complaint.

Garner blames the defendants for causing Sparks’s injury, saying they negligently failed to consider and rule out an organic cause for Sparks’s symptoms.

In her three-count complaint, Garner is seeking a judgment of more than $150,000, plus costs.

Joseph A. Bartholomew of Cook, Ysursa, Bartholomew, Brauer and Shevlin in Belleville will be representing her.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 13-L-07.