Temple Hospital Hit With $25.9M Verdict for Patient's Lost Leg

A Philadelphia man won a $25.9 million verdict in his lawsuit claiming that Temple University Hospital was to blame for losing his leg.

And now he’s looking to add another $3.7 million to his award.

Plaintiff Eddie Parks filed a motion for delay damages on May 12. He claimed he is entitled to several years of interest because the defendants failed to make an adequate settlement offer since the suit’s 2019 beginning.

Temple, meanwhile, contends that the verdict is already too high.

“While we ordinarily do not comment on ongoing litigation and we respect the judicial process, we believe that in this case, there were significant errors, and we intend to appeal those errors. We also intend to ask the trial court to reduce the amount of the award, which we believe is excessive by any standard,” a Temple University Health System spokesperson said in an email.

“We care deeply about all of our patients and recognize that when care falls short of our standards, we must be accountable and that patients must be justly compensated,” the spokesperson added. “But as a safety net hospital providing care to the neediest in our community, we are gravely concerned about the recent trend of excessive jury awards against hospitals and doctors.”

The May 9 jury award came down just weeks after Penn Medicine was hit with Pennsylvania’s largest-ever single-plaintiff medical malpractice verdict.

“We are very concerned about this trend of excessive awards and what it could mean for healthcare in our region,” the Temple Health System spokesperson said.

However, the plaintiff’s attorney said the verdict was a fair reflection of Parks’ harm.

“This is a just verdict that accounts for my client’s substantial medical needs and both past and future considerable pain and suffering,” Jordan Strokovsky of Strokovsky LLC said in an emailed comment. “We are hopeful this verdict will lead to system changes and safeguards to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.”

According to the plaintiff’s amended complaint, Parks sought treatment at Temple Hospital’s emergency department in 2018 for injuries resulting from a kick to his right leg. Parks claimed his doctors failed to diagnose and treat his knee dislocation and popliteal artery injury, causing him to suffer permanent harm.

“The 27-year-old father and nurses aid would arrive to Temple University Hospital after having his leg kicked and would leave the hospital 39 days later after having his leg sliced open, operated on constantly, and amputated through the knee,” the plaintiff alleged in the complaint.

The defendants, represented by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, denied responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries in an answer to the complaint. Marshall Dennehey senior counsel E. Chandler Hosmer III declined to comment.

“Plaintiff’s injuries, if proven, were the result of unrelated and/or underlying conditions/injuries, including but not limited to plaintiff’s failure to seek medical attention and/or treatment in a timely manner and failure to be and remain under the care of a medical doctor prior to her alleged injury, and not the medical care provided by the answering defendants,” Temple said in its answer.

The parties agreed to dismiss several defendants from the case the day before the trial began.

But Temple Hospital and Parks’ orthopedic surgeon stipulated to liability, according to the motion. And after a five-day trial limited to damages, the jury awarded $20 million for past and future noneconomic loss and $5.9 for future medical expenses.

Judge James Crumlish III of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas presided over the case, captioned Parks v. Temple University Hospital.