$18.25M Verdict After Cardinal Glennon ER Sent 3-Year-Old Home Three Times Before E. Coli Diagnosis

In June 2016, a three-year-old girl arrived at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis with stomach pain, diarrhea, fever, and elevated vitals. Staff gave her ibuprofen and sent her home about two hours later without ordering any diagnostic tests.

She returned to the same emergency room as her symptoms worsened, now including blood in her stool and vomiting. On the third visit, a nurse practitioner ordered a stool culture to test for E. coli O157:H7, a shiga toxin-producing strain known to cause life-threatening kidney complications in children. Despite ordering the culture, the treating physician gave the child intravenous fluids, diagnosed her with stomach flu, and sent her home again instead of admitting her for monitoring.

The culture came back positive. By then, the infection had progressed to hemolytic uremic syndrome, triggering acute kidney injury, seizures, neurological damage, and eventually permanent kidney failure. She required three months of hospitalization, ongoing dialysis, and developed insulin-dependent diabetes, conditions her physicians described as lifelong.

The family sued Saint Louis University, which operates Cardinal Glennon, arguing that hospital staff were negligent in failing to admit the child for supportive care during her second and third visits, and that admission would have prevented or substantially limited the progression of organ damage. Saint Louis University disputed both liability and causation, contending the hospital had followed applicable guidelines and that the disease course would have been the same regardless.

After an eight-day trial, nine of twelve jurors found for the plaintiff. Judge Scott Millikan presided over the St. Louis Circuit Court proceeding (Case No. 1722-CC01437). The jury awarded $1,200,000 for past medical expenses, $2,500,000 in past noneconomic damages, $9,559,033 for future medical care, and $5,000,000 in future noneconomic damages, totaling $18,254,033. The verdict was returned on May 22, 2019. A confidential settlement was subsequently approved on July 2, 2019; no appeal was filed. Mark Cantor of Cantor Injury Law served as referral counsel alongside lead trial attorneys from The Simon Law Firm.