Fieger Law – a nationwide personal injury law firm headquartered in Michigan – has received multiple honors from Michigan Lawyers Weekly and its “2017 Million Dollar Verdicts & Settlements” listing. The publication reviews and ranks the largest, most-impactful case victories in Michigan every year, sorting them further by category. Fieger Law was able to earn multiple rankings across several categories, including the largest verdict in Michigan of 2017, set at $40 million secured by lead Attorney Geoffrey Fieger.

The case of Dushon Watkins as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Terrea Holly, deceased v. Detroit Receiving Hospital and Detroit Medical Center begins with Terrea Holly coming to the defendant hospital with all the telltale symptoms of a pulmonary embolism. Her heart rate and respiratory rate were dangerously high, her oxygen saturation was indicative of hypoxia, and she had complained of extreme fatigue for most of the week. A responding emergency physician overlooked these symptoms by claiming they were indicative of some sort of cold since she also had a bad cough.

Holly was sent home, only to return again in the morning with severely worsened conditions. Doctors once against misdiagnosed her symptoms as anxiety and distress. Soon thereafter admission, her pulse stopped entirely and resuscitation attempts were made for more than 30 minutes before she regained a pulse. However, due to the severe lack of oxygen her brain had been experiencing for quite some time, her body failed and she was pronounced dead within the hour.

After an eight day trial, the jury went into deliberations for three hours. The key points of evidence had outlined the repeated, egregious failures of medical staff. Thanks to plaintiff Attorney Geoffrey Fieger and the efforts of our entire team, the case resulted with a $40 million verdict to pay for medical costs, loss of consortium, and noneconomic damages related to penalizing the defendant hospital.

From all of us at Fieger Law, we would like to thank Michigan Lawyers Weekly for this honorable recognition of our casework, as well as the several other cases listed in their top verdicts and settlements in Michigan of 2017 listing. Our hearts go out to all of our clients and people like them who find themselves in painful, difficult situations due to the negligence of third parties. A case win such as the one we achieved for the family of Holly Terrea motivates us even further to continue fighting the good fight for good people who need legal representation and moral support.