$24.6 Million Verdict for Family of Man Who Died After Respiratory Arrest During Colonoscopy
Won by Johnston Law Firm.
A Multnomah County jury awarded $24.6 million to the estate of Erric Edward Gilbert, a 43-year-old Portland man who died in November 2018, days after suffering respiratory arrest during a routine colonoscopy at The Portland Clinic.
What happened
Erric Edward Gilbert went to The Portland Clinic on October 26, 2018, for a routine colonoscopy. He was 43 years old and had a documented history of obstructive sleep apnea. During the procedure, he suffered respiratory arrest. What followed, according to the plaintiff's case, was a cascade of failures by clinic staff: vital signs that should have prompted immediate intervention were not acted on quickly enough, and when emergency responders arrived, clinic personnel refused to yield care to them. Gilbert went into cardiac arrest. By the time he was stabilized and transferred, he had sustained severe cerebral edema. He died on November 2, 2018, one week after the procedure.
His estate, represented by personal representative Tim Nay, filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court (Case No. 21CV18955) against The Portland Clinic, anesthesiologist Dr. David Stellway and his group Oregon Anesthesiology Group, and gastroenterologist Dr. Young Choi. The case went to trial in the summer of 2024.
Marc Johnston of Johnston Law Firm was part of the plaintiff trial team alongside co-counsel from Claggett and Sykes Trial Lawyers. The plaintiff's theory focused on the clinic's resuscitation failures and the anesthesiologist's conduct. The defense argued that liability should fall primarily on the anesthesiologist, who had already exited the case before trial through a separate resolution. The clinic maintained it bore no independent fault.
The jury rejected the clinic's framing. On August 16, 2024, it returned a verdict of $24,613,500, composed of $4,113,500 in economic damages and $20,500,000 in noneconomic damages. The jury allocated fault 40 percent to The Portland Clinic and 60 percent to Dr. Stellway and Oregon Anesthesiology Group. Dr. Choi was found not negligent. The clinic had offered $500,000 to settle before trial; the plaintiff's team had demanded the $3 million policy limits.
CVN ranked the verdict seventh on its list of the ten most impressive plaintiff verdicts of 2024 nationally. The case was litigated in Oregon state court and is recorded in Multnomah County Circuit Court under Case No. 21CV18955.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.