Baby Formula lawsuit in STL leads to $495M verdict

ST. LOUIS – A jury in St. Louis on Friday ordered Abbott Laboratories, the maker of Similac, to pay $95 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages. Soon after the verdict, the company stated it would pursue all avenues to have the decision overturned.

The case centered around Margo Gill, an Illinois mother and her three-year-old daughter, Robynn, who was hospitalized with major medical problems.

Jack Garvey, an attorney with Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, was part of the legal team representing the family. He said Robynn’s problems are related to a disease called necrotizing enterocolitis, otherwise known as NEC, which essentially vaporizes the lower bowel.

“It affects preterm infants, infants born at a very vulnerable time, and if they’re provided this formula at that time, it can have devastating consequences like it did here,” Garvey said.

Abbott insists Robynn’s medical problems are not related to their products and issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the jury’s verdict, adding that the verdict was not unanimous.

“Justice was served against a huge corporation,” Tor Hoerman, of the Tor Hoerman Law Firm, said. He gave credit to fellow firm attorney, Jake Plattenberger, for the $495 million verdict.

“We think it’s time for Abbott to start telling people the truth about this product,” Plattenberger said.

“We hope it’s just transparent and that there’s a warning put on the product to let parents and doctors know the risks of this formula,” Garvey said.

Abbott released a statement following the verdict that read, in part:

“There is no scientific evidence showing Abbott’s preterm infant products cause or contribute to causing NEC. Specialized formulas and fortifiers, like the one in this case, are part of the standard of care by the medical community and, along with mother’s milk and donor human milk, are the only available options to feed premature infants. .. Total revenues for these products are about $9 million annually and have remained at that level for the past several years. If these products were no longer available, physicians would be deprived of this vital food that is needed in the NICU.”

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