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Maurice Cobige, Personally and As Special Representative of the Estate of Patricia v. City of Chicago, Illinois, et al

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ARGUED JUNE 7,2011

Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and BAUER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

While in a police lockup, Patricia Cobige died of a heart arrhythmia. She was arrested on June 10, 2006, and pronounced dead at about 1:30 A.M. on June 12. Evidence from one of Cobige’s cellmates, plus two deputy sheriffs and a civilian aide at the lockup, permitted a jury to find that she experienced severe abdominal pain throughout her confinement. Dan J. Fintel, Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University and head of coronary care at its hospitals, testified that the pain led Cobige to produce more epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), which combined with a pre-existing heart condition (ventricular hypertrophy) caused her death. Uterine tumors found during a post-mortem examination led Dr. Fintel to conclude that Cobige indeed had suffered serious abdominal pain; Peter Santucci, the medical expert for the defendants, agreed. Dr. Fintel thought that routine tests and care would have prevented Cobige’s death had she been taken to an emergency room. Yet Cobige never received any medical attention after her arrest. A jury found that four police officers violated both state law and the federal Constitution by allowing Cobige to suffer untreated pain; the award is $5,000,000 in compensatory and $4,000 in punitive dam-ages to Maurice Cobige, who sued as Patricia’s son and special representative of her estate. The City of Chicago will indemnify the officers, and on this appeal we use “Chicago” or “defendants” to refer to the City plus the four officers.

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