ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ill. — Byers' Beat is a weekly column written by Investigative Crime and Courts Reporter Christine Byers, who has covered public safety in St. Louis for 17 years. It is intended to offer context and analysis to the week's biggest crime stories and public safety issues.
For two-week-old Isabella, her battle with Nectrotizing Enterocolitis, or NEC, started with a belly bulge so intense that her innie belly button became an outie.
Blood in her stool soon followed.
Then, surgery to remove 66% of her intestines.
After surgery, things didn’t get better for the little girl born 10 weeks premature.
Fluid started to gather on her brain and her lungs.
She couldn’t breathe on her own.
“I just remember them telling us, ‘You really need to think about letting her go peacefully so she’s not in pain,’” said Isabella’s mother, Abigail Grosshuesch, through tears. “With fluid in her brain, she’s probably going to be bedridden her whole life.’ At that point, I still wanted her to live and I figured I would just deal with all of that later, but when the breathing tube wasn’t working and they had to hand bag her for her heart rate to stabilize, I realized at that point, ‘She can’t go home.’ So they detached her from everything and put her on my chest.”
A few years later, Grosshuesch was watching TV when a commercial from a law firm came on, alleging there is a higher risk for NEC in premature babies who are given formula made with cow’s milk.
Now, Grosshuesch is among the hundreds of parents from across the country suing baby formula companies, alleging they didn’t do enough to keep parents informed about the risks of NEC. She now lives in Florida, raising the two boys she gave birth to after Isabella's death.
Close to 300 of those lawsuits like hers have been combined into a Multi-District Litigation suit in Illinois.
The first trial is expected to begin at the St. Clair County courthouse in Belleville in February.
I featured another family’s story in an I-Team story that aired and published Jan. 22. They were from Washington D.C.
Many readers and viewers asked: why is all of this coming to a head in St. Clair County?
Attorneys for the families said there are several reasons.
In court filings, the plaintiff’s attorneys argue formula giants Abbot and Mead-Johnson are located in Illinois.
Abbott agrees it is headquartered in Abbott Park, Ill., but argues the cases should be brought in Lake County where it is headquartered.
Mead-Johnson says it has an office in Chicago, but argues it is no longer its headquarters, and that it is headquartered in Indiana.
The trial appears to be moving ahead in St. Clair County regardless.
Being in Illinois means the state’s somewhat unique discovery rule applies to these product liability cases.
It essentially broadens the statute of limitations on cases like this.
So families – like Isabella’s – can pursue civil litigation even if they allege they were harmed by a product years and years ago.
Isabella died 10 years ago, but her mother didn’t learn the formula companies could be at fault until she saw that commercial. That’s when the clock started ticking on when she could file suit – basically two years after she learned a food product that she assumed was safe could be to blame.
Grosshuesch has already sued the hospital in DuPage County, Illinois, where Isabella died and the doctor who recommended Isabella be given formula in addition to her mother’s breast milk to gain more weight.
It turns out that doctor worked for Mead-Johnson.
A jury of 12 sided with Grosshuesch in that case.
Now, she believes the formula companies need to answer for their role in her daughter’s death.
And she – and hundreds of other parents – are bringing it to Illinois.