About Court....

The following was written by my husband:


The following is very long, and boring, and sad. I wrote this the afternoon after we got the verdict, while I sat in the bedroom and tried to process everything. It jumps around a good bit, and it leaves out lots of stuff that may make it hard to follow. Sue me….haha! As I have just found out, the odds are you will lose!
As many of you may know, my family and I have spent the last week and a half in court. After 5 long years, we finally had our chance to present our case in my mother’s wrongful death lawsuit.
We are NOT the type of people who would sue without good cause, and this was never about the money for us! I say that not to sound superior or to justify, but because it’s the truth, and those that know me and the family know we struggled for months before we made the decision to go forward 5 years ago. We were very lucky to find Brandon Taylor. From day one, when we contacted Brandon he was up front with us that this was a long, uphill battle. Through the last 4 ½ years of depositions, meetings, and finally court, I can say that I have not found one single point where I have disagreed or thought Brandon had done the wrong thing.
When mom passed away suddenly in April of 2008, we felt very strongly that she did not receive the correct care in the hospital. If you come into the ER for very bad flu, and they find a VERY low blood pressure and decide you need to be admitted to MONITOR that pressure, you would assume that part of that care would be the monitoring part! This lack of care led us to research (and eventually contact) Brandon. Over that first year, we had a number of meetings and conversations with Brandon and learned a lot about what actually went on over the 36 hours mom was in the hospital. As more and more details were revealed to us through the medical records and then depositions, it became clear to me that we had made the correct choice in pursuing this.
As I discovered as this process wore on and on, the legal system moves very, very slowly. It took over a year to get all the medical records, and it was into the second year before the first depositions were taken. We then had about a year where nothing really seemed to be taking place. In reality, Brandon was researching, finding expert witnesses, taking depositions on them, and doing even more research. It was not until March of last year when it seemed that real progress was being made. In March, everything was completed and the initial motions, and filings were brought to a judge. At that point, we were directed to take part in a court ordered mediation. We had the mediation in May of 2012. We all thought that that would be the end. Again, we were not looking for millions of dollars, we were looking for admission that there was something done wrong. To us the evidence was clear, and we thought they would offer a number, we would argue, and eventually settle. Unfortunately, the defense had no intention of settling. They did not TELL anyone this, and allowed our lawyer to hire a very well respected mediator, and have Tina come up from Florida for the mediation, only to sit in a room for about an hour while the mediator discovered they were only there because the judge said they had to be!
With mediation behind us we had the court date set in late summer. Feb 11th 2013. We thought that was it, sit back and wait for Feb. Well, as with everything else, we were wrong. There was a sudden phone call from one of the attorneys wanting to see if we were open to a settlement, but that never actually went anywhere….though it got our hopes up!! Then 2 weeks before trial, the hospital lawyer called and decided they DID want to settle, and we ultimately took the offer. The offer was not very much but in our minds it was an admission of guilt. The settlement removed the hospital and two nurses from the lawsuit but still left the two doctors to be resolved. This brings us up to the actual trial.
This last week and a half has been one of the most horrible periods in my entire life. Having to sit in that court room and relive that 36 hours in exacting detail all over again was very hard. Tina summed it up well with her comment that it was like ripping off a band-aid that had just started to heal. Over the last 7 days of actual court proceedings (we took off a day due to schedule issues) I had to listen to “experts” say that mom was ELDERLY (come on, no one who knew her would use that to describe her!!). I also heard how she was basically dead the second she came into the hospital, that the “die was cast” as one witness put it. I listened to the defense lawyer blame everyone NOT in the case….the nurses (who the jury did not know settled) the ER doctor, the grand kids. Yes, that is right, Tyler, Logan and Joey were the cause of moms death. You see she ultimately died of a viral infection of the heart muscle. It has a name, and I can pronounce the name, but damned if I can spell it….myocarditis is phonetic at least. In any case, the lawyer kindly pointed out in mom’s medical chart under her patient history that there were no other sick people in the house, but that her grandkids had been sick with a viral infection the previous week, and that may be where she got her flu. So, what really happened is she went to the ER because she thought she had a really bad case of the flu. When asked if there was anyone else in the house who was sick, she said, no, but my grandkids had the flu last week, and maybe I got it from them. If that one was not hard enough to sit through, there was more to come. I got to hear testimony from the doctor who was on duty overnight say that “no, he did not recall Gloria Campagnone, she was not remarkable.” He didn’t say this once, but multiple times, over and over when asked questions. Of course he did not see her once in his entire 12 hour shift, but what can you expect…she was after all “not remarkable” I managed to sit through all of that, and not once did I utter a single sound. I am very proud of the fact that at no time did the judge have to caution me or anyone else in the family to not disrupt court. I wanted to….I wanted to stand up and yell, and scream and punch the wall, but I did not. As the witnesses finished up, and we were left with closing arguments, I thought that we were done. There would not be any more lurid details of moms last moments, (She was conscious that morning and responding to verbal demands as they intubated and put in a central line) there would not be any more doctors blaming everyone else they possibly could. I was wrong. As the defense made its closing, and the lawyer walked through the record one last time, he brought up a point that he wanted to highlight. I am going to quote it as best I can, the words may not be 100% correct but the intent is there, and if Tina, or Alan read this, correct me if I miss speak.
“No one could have known on April 5 or April 6 how ill Mrs Campagnone was. After all, we heard from Mr Campagnone (Dad) that they were still planning on leaving town the day following her release. We heard from Aaron Campagnone, when he visited her in the ER, and brought lunch that she looked tired, but he felt OK to leave. In fact, he called and spoke with Mr Campagnone that evening and did not feel it necessary to return to visit her that night”
Up until that point, I was impressed that while the defense lawyers were obviously the “enemy” both of them had been professional and did their best to limit themselves to making the case, and not saying anything negative about us. I do not recall ever being angrier with a person and not being able to confront or deal with that person…ever! Fortunately for that lawyer, and for me ultimately we had a good 2 hours between that comment and a break in the proceedings. By that point I had myself under control and was able to walk out of the courtroom without assaulting him or making any comment to him. (again, those that know me well are probably VERY surprised that I was not in fact in jail for disrupting court!)
After 4 hours of deliberation Tue until 10pm and then returning Wed and deliberating another 3 hours, the jury did finally come back and found for the Defense. This was not overall a surprise to us. We knew it would be difficult to win in court, in this county. We didn’t go into this with blinders on, and Brandon was very up front with us that this was a long shot if it went to trial. As we left the courthouse, I was in disbelief over the outcome. I could not see how we did not prove the case, and just didn’t understand the verdict. Brandon stayed in the courthouse and cornered a couple of jury members that were still there to get their opinions and a better understanding of what happened. As we waited outside for Brandon to emerge, we were approached by the judge. He said he is not allowed to comment on any ongoing case, but now that it was over, he could offer his condolences etc. I will leave the rest of his comments out of this, but what he did say did help and bring me some closure. Brandon finally emerged with 3 of the jury, and the other lawyer from the defense. (not the one I wanted to physically assault) As Brandon stood with the 3 jury members, the defense lawyer slowly made his way across the parking lot to where Tina, Alan, dad and I stood. I have no doubt that that was one of the longest 20-30 yards that gentleman had ever walked, and I will give him full credit for making that walk!! It took huge balls. I can’t honestly say I could have done the same in his place. All through the trial, this particular lawyer was tasked with questioning the medical experts. His style tended to be long winded and he liked to go over the records and medical charts line by line by line. To say I did not really like the guy is an understatement, but again, he gained my respect and then some by making that walk. He extended his condolences and wanted to apologize if he said or did anything in the trial that we thought was inappropriate or disrespected moms memory. He truly did not, and I appreciated that he came over. Tina asked him a question, and again, I am not sure of the wording, but here is the essence of what she asked. The main doctor in our case had stated in his testimony that since mom, he had spent extra time trying to look for that mistake he made, trying to prevent another mom from happening. So much so that others noticed he was spending an unordinary amount of time with patients and on rounds. Tina asked the lawyer flat out if that was true, if in fact this doctor really had made that effort, and if he had changed. The lawyer said without hesitation that yes, his testimony was truthful and sincere.
This more than anything else since the verdict has helped me make peace with what has happened. Funny that the guy I had more respect for over the course of 6 days blew it on the 7th, and the guy I genuinely disliked for 6 days provided answer to what I needed to hear the most. We didn’t win, but we got what we wanted, a change to the mistakes made that day with mom. No, there was not some huge payout, which is what the insurance companies understand, but I think that maybe, just maybe there might be others out there who are still alive because of the lessons learned by this doctor because of his lack of care for mom.
Ultimately after talking with Brandon, it looks like the jury did think there was a lack of care, but that it was not to the level of it being negligent in a legal sense. We will have to agree to disagree on that one.