Former Tipton doctor found liable in death of LeClaire man, jury awards over $1.6 million

DAVENPORT — A Scott County jury awarded more than $1.6 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit to the daughter of a LeClaire man who died because his Tipton doctor failed to properly treat a staph bacterial infection.

The lawsuit was filed against Dr. Michelle M. Sprengelmeyer, who formerly was employed by Tipton Family Practice, other medical providers and medical health facilities, but the jury on Tuesday found Sprengelmeyer, the primary care provider for Steve Schwarz, 67, a LeClaire welder, was liable for mismanaging the staph infection.

The jury assigned “100 percent of the fault” to Sprengelmeyer, according to the jury verdict, for mismanaging the infection which spread during his rehabilitative care at Cedar Manor in Tipton.

The jury didn’t assign any “fault” to the other medical providers named in the negligence suit filed by Heather Barrett, daughter of Schwarz, according to civil jury verdict provided to The Gazette by Barrett’s lawyers.

Cedar Manor was dismissed from the negligence lawsuit before it went to trial.

According to evidence presented during the two-week trial, Schwarz had surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in March 2020 to insert a supportive hardware in his spine for an injury, said Barret’s lawyer, Anthony Bribriesco, who practices in Iowa City, the Quad Cities and Muscatine. Schwarz was then discharged to recover at Cedar Manor, where Sprengelmeyer was his treating physician.

Schwarz was discharged from UIHC with orders to continue antibiotics to treat a staph bacteria that can cause a range of infections, but Sprengelmeyer failed to follow those orders, which caused the infection to get worse, the suit asserted. Sprengelmeyer didn’t follow the original orders, then neglected to treat and prescribe care for the infection in June, according to the suit.

“Left untreated the infection became deadly, and Schwarz was later sent home in the care of hospice where he died in July (2020),” the press release stated.

Barrett, in a statement, said she appreciated being able to get justice for the medical malpractice that caused her father’s passing, but it doesn’t make up for her loss.

“It’s difficult to reason that a common infection took (my dad) down,” Barrett said in the statement. “He rode ATVs, hopped in his car for cross-country road trips to surprise us (in California). He was a strong, active man who was just starting to enjoy his retirement,” she said.

“We thought he was getting the care he needed after surgery; it didn’t make sense that he wasn’t improving,” she continued. “It was too late when we discovered the infection wasn’t being treated with antibiotics … It was awful, my dad deserved better care.”

Bribriesco, in a statement, said while preparing for the case they learned the overall success rate for “treatment of spinal infection involving hardware with suppressive antibiotics is nearly 80 percent. A simple, well-known treatment of antibiotics would have saved Steve’s life.”

Research also shows transitions in care between hospital and nursing homes are a preventable source of medication errors, Bribriesco said. Better communication and a systematic approach to preventing medication errors can save lives. In finding Sprengelmeyer liable, “the jury indicates the importance of doctors proactively reevaluating patients’ conditions and the medications they prescribe.”

“These type of medication errors should simply not occur. It is a doctor’s basic responsibility to carefully review patients’ records and remain vigilant while a patient is in their care,” Bill Bribriesco, also Barrett’s lawyer on the suit, said in a statement.

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