$495 Million Verdict Against Abbott for Failing to Warn That Similac Caused NEC in Premature Infant

In the summer of 2023, Margo Gill filed suit in St. Louis on behalf of her daughter Robynn, a premature infant who had been admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit shortly after birth. While in the NICU, Robynn received Abbott Laboratories' Similac Special Care 24, a cow's milk-based formula marketed for premature and low-birth-weight newborns. She subsequently developed necrotizing enterocolitis, a life-threatening condition in which intestinal tissue dies. The disease left Robynn with severe and permanent brain damage.

The central allegation was straightforward: Abbott had known for years that cow's milk-based formula significantly raises the risk of NEC in premature infants, yet the company placed no warning on Similac products. Medical literature linking cow's milk formula to NEC in preterm newborns had accumulated over decades, and internal Abbott documents were put before the jury to show that executives were aware of the risk association while choosing not to warn neonatologists, hospital staff, or parents.

Trial ran from July 9 to July 26, 2024, before Judge Michael Noble in the Civil Courts Building in St. Louis. Jacob Plattenberger of TorHoerman Law served as lead trial counsel for the Gill family, alongside co-counsel John 'Jack' Garvey of Stranch, Jennings and Garvey. The defense, handled by Kirkland and Ellis and Winston and Strawn, argued that Robynn's complications stemmed from her prematurity itself, pointing to prior surgeries, hemorrhages, and a hypoxic event, not the formula.

The jury rejected Abbott's causation defense and returned a verdict of $495 million: $95 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages. Abbott publicly disputed the finding, stating it disagreed with the decision and would pursue every available avenue to have it overturned. In May 2026 the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, affirmed the verdict and later declined to transfer the case to the Missouri Supreme Court, leaving the $495 million award intact.

The Gill case was the first plaintiff verdict in the NEC infant formula litigation to reach a jury in Missouri. Tor Hoerman, founding attorney of TorHoerman Law, had led the firm's NEC docket, which included hundreds of similar claims against Abbott and Mead Johnson filed on behalf of families across the country.