On July 10, 2012, plaintiff Susan Mallen, 53, an executive assistant, presented to California Pacific Medical Center for an evaluation of a potential stroke and heart attack, which she thought she was having. The evaluation process was quite extensive — consisting of CT and MRI scans, and a nuclear medicine heart scan — and she also received a routine peripheral intravenous line in an arm. On her last day at the hospital, on July 13, 2012, it was discovered that Mallen had suffered an infiltration around the IV site, a common inflammation from IV placement. Dr. Matthew McAndrew, the on-call hospitalist, discharged Mallen home. On July 16, 2012, Mallen presented to another hospital with an inflamed arm and she was given antibiotics, which were thought to have killed the infection in Mallen’s arm. As a result, she was sent home. Three days later, Mallen returned to the other hospital and was hospitalized. Blood taken during both visits showed bacteria still in Mallen’s blood. However, during her hospitalization on July 19, 2012, it was discovered that Mallen had spinal osteomyelitis at T10-11. Mallen sued McAndrew and the operator of California Pacific Medical Center, Sutter West Bay Hospitals. Mallen alleged that McAndrew failed to treat and diagnose the infection caused by the IV infiltration and that this failure constituted medical malpractice. Sutter West settled out of the case two months prior to trial. Thus, the matter continued against McAndrew only. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that McAndrew failed to provide Mallen with antibiotics when she left the hospital and that by the time Mallen presented to another hospital six days later and given antibiotics, it was too late and the infection had reached her spine. The plaintiff’s expert hospitalist opined that McAndrew should have kept Mallen in the hospital for further evaluation. He testified that if Mallen was treated with antibiotics, her infection would not have continued. Thus, the expert opined that McAndrew should have noted that Mallen’s arm was red, swollen, warm and painful and that McAndrew should have treated the symptoms as an infection and given Mallen antibiotics. Mallen’s counsel contended that IV infiltrations are common and that Mallen’s infiltration looked like all the others, which do not warrant antibiotics. The defense’s expert hospitalist described the situation and opined that Mallen most likely was infiltrated from the IV. The expert also opined that in the case of IV infiltrations, patients are not given antibiotics at all because infiltrations usually do not progress to infections. He further opined that McAndrew followed the standard of care by looking at Mallen’s arm and telling her to present to her doctor if it got worse. Mallen’s counsel contended that doctors do not give antibiotics unless there is an infection actively present and that McAndrew and the nurses looked at Mallen’s arm and thought it looked like a typical infiltration. However, Mallen claimed that at the time of the examination, there was a red streak going up to her shoulder and that it was swollen, but McAndrew disagreed and claimed that it looked like any other infiltration., Mallen suffered an IV infiltration that turned to an infection that later became blood-borne. As a result, she suffered spinal osteomyelitis at T10-11, which caused the vertebrae to collapse. Mallen ultimately underwent a longer course of treatment, of approximately six weeks, to eradicate the infection. Mallen claimed she had constant back pain and had to treat with a lot of narcotics. She was also treated with Vancomycin, an antibiotic that allegedly caused a persistent ringing in her ears. In addition, Mallen underwent physical therapy and had a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation unit at home, which she used for long-term back pain. Before trial, Mallen underwent a radiofrequency ablation at the T10-11 level, which she claimed provided her with a lot of relief. However, she alleged that as the relief is only temporary, she would need ablations every six to nine months for the rest of her life, at a cost of $16,000 to $20,000 each time. Mallen claimed that her condition causes her to have no energy to work or for her daily life. At the time of the infection, she lost her job as an executive assistant. Mallen ultimately found work as a consultant for a startup company’s activities 1.5 years later, which she alleged is a good job for a disabled person. However, she claimed that if she loses that job, she may never find another one due to her residual lack of energy. Thus, plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award Mallen $6 million in total damages, including $2.5 million in special damages and $3.5 million in general damages. (Mallen’s husband, William Mallen, was ultimately removed as a plaintiff from the case over a year before trial.) Defense counsel did not dispute Ms. Mallen’s injury, but noted that her testimony was inconsistent. Specifically, defense counsel noted that Ms. Mallen claimed that she could not work much and was not able to return to work, but that she was able to go back to work earlier than she expected — 1.5 years later — and was working close to 60 hours for three weeks straight. In addition, defense counsel noted that even though Ms. Mallen claimed that she would also require Xanax every day for the rest of her life, Ms. Mallen had already been taking Xanax for 4.5 years before the infection.