Doctor's Assistance Leads to Mistrial

Fromt the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette:

URBANA – In a reversal of an earlier decision, a Champaign County judge Wednesday granted a mistrial in a medical malpractice case in which a physician witness helped a juror having a medical emergency in the courtroom.

Dr. Robin Steinhorn, a Chicago neonatologist, was the first expert witness on behalf of the Shambos and was only minutes into her testimony at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, when a middle-aged juror indicated she wasn't feeling well.

Steinhorn, who practices at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University in Evanston, asked the judge if she could approach the juror, who was having difficulty breathing, had broken out in a sweat, and was very pale.

Jones ordered Steinhorn to see if she could help her while emergency personnel were en route to the courthouse. The other jurors and the approximately 20 spectators, many of them University of Illinois law students, were removed from the courtroom.