Patrick Salvi II · Jennifer Cascio
$363,000,000 Verdict: Toxic Tort, Carcinogen Causes Breast Cancer, “Kill Shots for Causation”
April 9, 2025 5:30 PM||TLU n Demand
From 1985 to 2019, there was a medical device sterilization company, Sterigenics, that operated in Willowbrook, Illinois – a small suburb southwest of Chicago. Unbeknownst to the community, the company had been using and emitting ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic chemical that is effective in sterilizing medical equipment before being sent to hospitals and doctors for use on patients. Sue Kamuda, who in 1985 had just moved to the area with her husband and three kids, lived there the entire time and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. She received aggressive treatment and has been in remission since early 2008. Sue was the first Plaintiff to bring suit in what would become a nearly 900-Plaintiff mass tort. The verdict came after 6-weeks of trial, which followed 3-weeks of motions in limine.
The case deal with the following issues:
- Though the Plaintiff was one of nearly 900 who had filed suit, the Judge strictly prohibited any mention of other Plaintiffs, which included her son, Brian, who also was diagnosed with a cancer that had epidemiological links to ethylene oxide exposure. Indeed, her son’s case was severed from Sue’s case one month before trial in response to a motion that claimed severe prejudice if the cases were tried together.
- The epidemiology was all related to worker-related cancers, whereas our client was exposed while at home. People who had worked in these facilities over the years had much higher lifetime exposure than even the closest residents nearby. Sue lived one-third of a mile away, and her exposure was about 1/1000th of those that had increased cancer risks according to the studies, and that was by our experts’ calculations.
- Sue was diagnosed with Stage 1 Breast Cancer, which is of course devastating and terrifying. Luckily, she was determined to have no evidence of disease about 8 months after being diagnosed following aggressive treatment. She was also fortunate to not have had any remission in the 14 years between her diagnosis and her trial. However, this required significant detailed work to ensure compensatory damages were properly assessed.
- The defense hired someone who was once part of the EPA’s working group on ethylene oxide, who as an epidemiologist offered the opinion that the chemical is only toxic at doses much higher than that which the Plaintiff was exposed.
- With such a lengthy trial, how do we as Plaintiff’s lawyers ensure that the jury remembers our evidence, particularly the evidence at the beginning of the case?
- The entire process of medical sterilization is very complex, allowing for significant argument by defense as to the evolution and efficacy of their pollution controls, which they claimed were always state of the art at the time and never emitted enough ethylene oxide that could harm someone in the community.
- Because the Defendant was one who helped the healthcare industry, they had built into their defense the necessity of their business operations to ensure that people who had medical procedures had medical devices free of bacteria and microbes.
There were three defendants – Sterigenics, its parent company, and its former parent company. The verdict was guilty against all 3 of them and on all 12 counts, resulting in a compensatory verdict of $38 million and a punitive verdict of $325 million.
If you can't attend Live, Watch On Demand