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Chris Eagan and Randy Sellers obtained a defense verdict for an internist in a wrongful death case in Calhoun County, Alabama. The case involved a patient who had surgery for gastrointestinal reflux disease. Three days after the surgery the patient presented to the Emergency Department and was seen by an emergency room physician and the internist. The patient was admitted to the ICU and worked-up for a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. The following day a surgeon saw the patient and suspected a perforated esophagus which is a rare, but recognized complication of the surgery. The patient was taken to surgery where the esophagus was repaired but the patient developed sepsis, multi-organ failure, shock and died. The plaintiff claimed that the standard of care required a STAT surgical consult and a STAT CT scan with contrast to rule out esophageal perforation. Following an 8 day trial, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant internist, as well as the emergency room physician.