Northern Trust Co. v. Upjohn Co

In Northern Trust Co. v. Upjohn Co., 213 Ill. App. 3d 390, 572 N.E.2d 1030, 157 Ill. Dec. 566 (1991) the Court concluded the plaintiff's expert, board-certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine and the director of emergency services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was unqualified to testify to the standard of care that applied to the use of the drug Prostin in the context of an abortion procedure, which, according to the complaint, caused the patient to suffer cardiac arrest, resulting in brain injury. The plaintiff's expert had never worked in an obstetrics or gynecology ward, had never performed an abortion, had never used Prostin, had never seen Prostin used, and had never observed a patient's reaction to Prostin. Based on these facts, the Court concluded the expert "was not qualified to give an opinion on the standard of care since he could not know what was customary practice" for someone in the defendant's position. Northern Trust, 213 Ill. App. 3d at 407.