An award of $23.1 million to a woman who had both of her legs and a finger amputated because of an infection that went septic and gangrenous does not shock the conscience, Lehigh County President Judge Carol K. McGinley said in a Feb. 23 opinion denying the defendants’ post-trial motions.
Sharlee Ann Smoyer, then 52 and a Carbon County resident, was awarded on a 11-1 vote $12.45 million in future medical expenses from 2011 to 2038, $9.5 million in past, present and future non-economic losses, $1.01 million in future lost earnings and $156,075 in past lost earnings, according to McGinley’s molded verdict in Smoyer v. Yurchak .
