The agonizing words no parent should ever have to hear: “Your child died during a routine procedure.”

A highly trained brain surgeon, with a stellar reputation and a position as a professor at a major medical university, made a terrible mistake while performing surgery and nicked a critical artery in the brain. The resulting hemorrhage could not be stopped. The woman, a beloved member of a large family and the sole support of her aged mother, died moments later, on the operating table. The deceased patient and her mother had previously been told that it was just a “routine procedure,” but it was clearly one that had gone terribly wrong.

The parties engaged in settlement negotiations before trial, and the family received a very favorable settlement without having to endure a lengthy, emotional trial.