On April 1, 2021, the Court of Appeals of Ohio Eighth Appellate District (“Ohio Appellate Court”) affirmed an Ohio medical malpractice verdict in favor of the defendants, stating: “Following a complete and careful review of the record, we cannot say that, in resolving conflicts in the evidence, the jury clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the verdict must be overturned and a new trial ordered. During the trial, the jury was presented with conflicting expert opinions regarding the standard of care and evidently determined that Dr. Jacobs and his medical expert witness, Dr. Bach, were more credible. Because there was competent, credible evidence to support the jury’s verdict, this court will not second guess their findings. Thus, we find that the jury’s verdict was not against the manifest weight of the evidence, and we decline to disturb it.”

The Underlying Facts

On June 25, 2012, the plaintiff escorted ReDon Jones (“Jones”) to the emergency room at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. For approximately one week prior to June 25th, ReDon had been experiencing pains in the left side of his chest and the plaintiff feared that ReDon was having a heart attack. While in the emergency room, ReDon was evaluated and an electrocardiogram (“EKG”) was administered to determine a possible source of the chest pains. However, the EKG did not show any ST elevations.

The following day after the emergency room evaluation, ReDon was transferred to an observation area (known as the clinical division unit) where he continued to complain about chest pains. Here, a physician, Dr. Avrum Jacobs (“Dr. Jacobs”), evaluated ReDon and, after completing his evaluation, Dr. Jacobs discharged ReDon. Dr. Jacobs had concluded that ReDon had experienced “chest pain of unknown [origin], with no evidence of acute coronary syndrome.”

The following day, June 27, 2012, ReDon had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Jacobs. At this follow-up appointment, Dr. Jacobs had originally intended to perform a nuclear stress test. However, because of ReDon’s claustrophobia, this particular test was not administered. At this time, no further testing was performed on ReDon. Dr. Jacobs had him return a week later, on July 2nd, for another test, a stress echo test.

On July 9, 2012, the plaintiff had apparently planned to take ReDon back to the emergency room at Hillcrest Hospital because ReDon continued to experience chest pains. On the morning of July 9th, ReDon suffered a heart attack at the family home. He was transported by ambulance to Hillcrest Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Ohio Appellate Court held: “the jury’s verdict was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. All of appellant’s assignments of error are overruled, and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.”

Source Jones v. Cleveland Clinic Found., 2021-Ohio-1095.

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