Alton Memorial Hospital and Shantela Stackhouse of Granite City settled a wrongful death suit after Stackhouse withdrew a claim for survival damages on behalf of her stillborn fetus.
Hospital counsel Russell Makepeace of St. Louis notified Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel of the settlement on Aug. 29.
He stated the hospital continues to deny liability, “but wishes to buy its peace.”
A survival action that Stackhouse filed against the U.S. government remains pending along with claims of wrongful death and medical malpractice.
Alton Memorial and the government moved for summary judgment against the survival actions in June, claiming a person can’t accrue causes of action until birth.
Rosenstengel hadn’t ruled on it as of Sept. 2.
Stackhouse’s counsel Keith Short of Alton sued the hospital and Southern Illinois Health Care Foundation in Madison County circuit court in 2021.
Short also named foundation physicians Geoffrey Turner and Jamie Hardman as defendants.
According to the suit, the hospital admitted Stackhouse with a viable and healthy baby boy in July 2019.
Tests allegedly revealed high blood pressure and a high level of protein in the liver.
Turner discharged Stackhouse allegedly when she was too unstable for discharge.
An ambulance then brought her to Gateway Regional medical center with low blood pressure and vomiting.
Stackhouse suffered 100% placental abruption and was taken for cesarean section.
Resuscitation was initiated and the child expired.
The lawsuit sought $15 million for each of nine counts, a total of $135 million.
The foundation removed the suit to district court and the government moved to substitute itself for the foundation and the doctors.
Mediator Stephen Williams conducted a session last year but no settlement resulted.
The parties set another mediation this June 21, this one with Michael Geigerman of St. Louis.
On June 19 the hospital moved for summary judgment against a survival action.
Makepeace claimed the Survival Act allows recovery of damages for injury sustained by a decedent up to the time of death.
“Unlike damages for wrongful death, which address the injury suffered by the deceased’s next of kin due to the loss of the deceased, a survival action allows for the recovery of damages for injuries personally sustained by the deceased up to the time of death,” he wrote.
“There is no recognized claim in Illinois that can be prosecuted by a fetus.”
Mediation two days later didn’t succeed.
On June 24 assistant U.S. attorney Kyle Oehmke joined the hospital’s motion.
Short opposed it on July 19, claiming neither Illinois appellate courts nor the Supreme Court confronted the issue.
“Plaintiffs argue that because there is no case law directly prohibiting a cause of action, this court can extend Illinois common law to provide for such a cause of action,” Short wrote.
He claimed the Supreme Court rejected live birth as a condition of recovery for injuries in the context of wrongful death.
He claimed the Supreme Court consistently interpreted wrongful death law to require that a decedent could have brought, at the time of his death, an action for damages.
On Aug. 28, he amended the complaint to drop Stackhouse’s medical malpractice and survival claims against the hospital.
Settlement with the hospital occurred overnight.
Makepeace moved for an approval hearing, stating the parties negotiated in good faith and reached a fair and reasonable compromise.
This article was first published in Cook County Record.
