Cook County Jury Returns Illinois-Record $39.9 Million Stroke Verdict Against Advocate Physician Partners

In January 2015, Antonio DeAngelo, then 37 and living in Hoffman Estates, went to a doctor's office complaining of a persistent cough. The physician, affiliated with Advocate Physician Partners, diagnosed bronchitis and noted that DeAngelo also had abnormally high blood pressure, morbid obesity, and a fast heart rate. DeAngelo left with a prescription for an antibiotic and nothing to treat his hypertension. No lab work was ordered, no cardiac testing, no follow-up.

About four weeks later, on March 11, 2015, co-workers found him in distress and called 911. He arrived at Loyola University Medical Center with a blood pressure reading of 290/190 and was found to be suffering a hemorrhagic stroke.

The stroke left DeAngelo permanently disabled. He spent more than a year at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) for physical, occupational, and speech therapy. He has hemiparesis, weakness on one side of his body, along with aphasia from the brain damage. He cannot walk long distances, drive, dress, bathe, or eat without help. "The last nine years of our lives and that of our children have been a living hell," his wife, Jennifer DeAngelo, said.

At trial in Cook County Circuit Court, Clifford Law Offices partners Bradley Cosgrove and Charles Haskins, with associate Devin Piper, argued that treating DeAngelo's high blood pressure during that January 2015 visit would have prevented the stroke. "This man should be enjoying life to the fullest now. Instead, he finds himself struggling to get through every day," Cosgrove said.

The doctor who treated DeAngelo was not an Advocate employee but a non-employed physician working out of a private office, so the claim was brought against Advocate Physician Partners, the managed care network the physician practiced under. Advocate responded in a statement that its "hearts go out to this individual."

The jury of six men and six women deliberated about four hours before Judge Preston Jones Jr. at the Daley Center. On the evening of February 29, 2024, it returned a verdict of $39.9 million, which included $20 million for disability. The Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter recorded it as the largest award for a stroke case in state history.