Mercy Lawsuit: Birth Injury Verdict, Settlements, and Class Actions

A Mercy lawsuit can mean very different things depending on which health system is involved. The name appears on three separate organizations, and recent cases against them include a $48.1 million Missouri birth injury verdict, a $14.8 million federal settlement in Iowa, a multimillion-dollar class action over patient data shared with Facebook and Google, a nine-million-person data breach in multidistrict litigation, a pending wrongful death suit in Springfield, and older employment, wage, and ERISA actions.

Which Mercy Is Being Sued

Three distinct organizations share the Mercy name, and the distinction matters when reading any case.

Mercy, formerly the Sisters of Mercy Health System, is a Catholic system headquartered in St. Louis with roughly 50 hospitals across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.¹ It is the defendant in the $48.1 million birth injury verdict, the Springfield ER lawsuit, the Cedar Rapids federal settlement, and the wage collective action.

Bon Secours Mercy Health is a separate organization formed by a 2018 merger of Bon Secours Health System and Ohio-based Mercy Health. It operates primarily in the eastern United States and is the defendant in the MyChart privacy settlement, the Perry Johnson & Associates data breach MDL, the Workday employee data breach case, and older cases involving Bon Secours facilities.

Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California, operates under Dignity Health, now part of CommonSpirit Health. That is where the disability discrimination settlement below originated.

$48.1 Million Birth Injury Verdict in St. Louis County

On March 25, 2025, a St. Louis County Circuit Court jury returned what has been called the largest medical malpractice verdict in Missouri history: $48.1 million against Mercy Hospital, Mercy Clinic, and obstetrician Dr. Daniel McNeive.² The case was filed as No. 21SL-CC03944 before Judge Ellen Ribaudo.³

The plaintiff, Sarah Anyan, was a cardiac nurse at the Mercy facility. She was admitted on May 3, 2020, and began pushing at 3:50 a.m. the next morning. By 8:00 a.m., fetal heart rate tracings showed signs of potential oxygen deprivation, and plaintiffs’ counsel argued a cesarean should have been performed by 9:30 a.m. Dr. McNeive did not recommend one, and trial testimony indicated he was absent from the bedside from roughly 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. while delivering other patients’ babies.⁴

The child was delivered in distress at 4:24 p.m., diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, spent 46 days in the NICU, and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.⁵ The jury awarded $28.1 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages against Dr. McNeive and Mercy Clinic. Mercy said it disagrees with the outcome and is reviewing all options, including appeal.²

$14.8 Million Federal Settlement in Cedar Rapids

In March 2026, Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, agreed to pay $14,814,581.50 to resolve allegations that it violated the federal Civil Monetary Penalties Law.⁶ The conduct involved Mercy Surgery Center, an ambulatory surgery center in Hiawatha, Iowa, partly owned by an outside investment company.⁷

HHS alleged that the hospital provided improper financial benefits to the investment company and its physician owners by paying management fees and expenses that the investment company owed and by making profit distributions the surgery center’s operating agreement prohibited.⁶⁸⁹

Bon Secours Mercy Health Patient Privacy Class Action

A separate class action, John Doe v. Bon Secours Mercy Health (Case No. A 2002633), alleged that the system transmitted personally identifiable information and protected health information to Facebook and Google through the Mercy MyChart patient portal and the mercy.com website without authorization. Bon Secours Mercy Health denies the allegations.¹⁰

The proposed settlement covers Ohio residents who were Bon Secours Mercy Health patients and logged into the MyChart portal between March 27, 2018, and December 31, 2021. It creates a $5 million fund with an additional $2.5 million available if claims exceed the initial amount, for a potential total of $7.5 million. Baseline payments are set at $35 per eligible class member, subject to adjustment. The claim deadline is August 21, 2025.¹⁰

Perry Johnson & Associates Data Breach MDL

Bon Secours Mercy Health is also a defendant in the larger Perry Johnson & Associates breach litigation. An unauthorized party accessed the medical transcription vendor’s computer network and copied files between March 27 and May 2, 2023. The breach was discovered in late July 2023 and potentially affected about nine million people. Compromised data varied but could include names, addresses, Social Security numbers, insurance details, and clinical information.¹¹

The lawsuits were consolidated in January 2024 into MDL No. 3096 in the Eastern District of New York before Judge Rachel P. Kovner, starting with 35 actions from six federal districts.¹² Plaintiffs allege negligence, breach of implied contract, and state consumer protection violations, claiming inadequate cybersecurity and delayed notification. As of mid-2024, additional related cases were still being transferred in, and no settlement had been reached.¹³

A separate 2024 breach affected Bon Secours Mercy Health employees when unauthorized access to a Workday test environment exposed names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses of current and former employees between April and July 2024. Lausche v. Bon Secours Mercy Health Inc., filed in the Southern District of Ohio in October 2024, alleges inadequate data security and delayed notification.¹⁴

Springfield ER Wrongful Death Suit

A wrongful death suit filed on February 29, 2024, alleges that Anthony McGowan, 56, died after waiting nearly eleven hours in the Mercy Hospital Springfield emergency room without being seen by a physician. According to the complaint, he arrived around 8:00 p.m. on May 21, 2023, reporting chest pain and arm numbness, with a known history of coronary artery disease and prior heart attack. Triage was completed by about 9:00 p.m., and he was sent to the waiting room.¹⁵

By 6:45 a.m. the next morning, McGowan had still not been assessed by a provider. He returned to triage reporting worse chest pain. Four minutes later another person in the waiting room alerted a nurse that he was slumped in his wheelchair, pale, sweating, and vomiting. He was moved to a treatment room as a cardiac alert and died at 7:25 a.m.¹⁵ Mercy Hospital Springfield has said it believes the care provided was appropriate and met the standard of care.¹⁶

Chicago Tracheostomy Verdict Cut on Appeal

An earlier verdict shows how appellate review can reshape a large malpractice award. A jury awarded $22,185,598.50 against Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Chicago after finding that staff negligently managed a tracheostomy performed on Jeanette Turner to treat a severe jaw infection. Post-operative bleeding went unaddressed, causing airway obstruction, respiratory arrest, and permanent brain damage.¹⁷

Turner died the evening before the verdict. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the negligence finding but vacated $15 million representing future damages, ruling that because Turner died before the verdict was entered the matter became a survival action under Illinois law, limiting recovery to damages incurred up to the date of death.¹⁷

Wage and Hour Collective Action

In Peck v. Mercy Health (No. 4:21-cv-00834, E.D. Mo.), plaintiff Danielle Peck alleges that Mercy Health used an automatic timekeeping system that deducted a half-hour for meal breaks even though the employer knew hourly workers routinely worked through them. The complaint asserts violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Oklahoma Protection of Labor Act, plus state common law claims. The court conditionally certified the FLSA claim as a collective action, though Peck had not moved for class certification on the state law claims. As of an April 2026 court entry, the case remained pending.¹⁸

Employment Discrimination Outcomes

In 2003, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia awarded $4,050,000 to Stephanie Denninghoff, former Director of Operative Services at Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, who alleged she was forced out after attempting to address sexual harassment by a nurse in the hospital’s operating rooms. According to the EEOC, hospital management pressured her to resign after a prominent doctor threatened to take his business elsewhere unless she was terminated and the nurse rehired.¹⁹

In a separate action, the EEOC sued Dignity Health, operating as Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California, for failing to provide reasonable accommodations to an employee with vision loss and then firing her. The case settled in 2019 for $570,000, with a three-year consent decree requiring updated anti-discrimination policies, mandatory training, and ongoing reporting to the EEOC on future disability discrimination complaints.²⁰

ERISA Retirement Plan Settlement

In Hill v. Mercy Health Sys. Corp. (N.D. Ill., No. 3:20-cv-50286), filed in August 2020, plaintiffs alleged that Mercy Health breached its ERISA fiduciary duties by maintaining imprudent investments, unreasonable fees, and underperforming options in retirement plans covering roughly 21,700 participants. The parties reached a $3.9 million settlement, approved by Judge Iain D. Johnston in December 2021 after an earlier proposal was rejected. The revised agreement required Mercy Health to retain an independent consultant to review the plans’ investment lineups and fees.²¹

1
Mercy. Mercy Quick Facts
2
Becker’s Hospital Review. Mercy Hit With $48M Verdict in Infant Brain Damage Case
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Missouri Lawyers Media. St. Louis County Jury Awards $48M in Record Birth Injury Verdict
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Gunn Slater. St. Louis Jury Awards $48.1 Million Verdict to Child of Mercy Nurse
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KSDK. Medical Malpractice Case Delivery Left Baby Brain Injury St. Louis
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HHS Office of Inspector General. Mercy Medical Center Agreed to Pay $14.8 Million
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ASC News. Iowa Hospital Pays $14.8M After Disclosing ASC-Related Payment Violation
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KCRG. Mercy Medical Center Fined More Than $14.8 Million by HHS
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Corridor Business Journal. Mercy Medical Center Agrees to $14.8 Million Payment
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Mercy Health Settlement. Mercy Health Privacy Settlement FAQ
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Healthcare Dive. Bon Secours Mercy Health Percy Johnson Associates Data Breach Lawsuit
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FindLaw. In Re Perry Johnson and Associates Medical Transcription Data Security Breach Litigation
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U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL-3096 Transfer Order
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Bloomberg Law. Bon Secours Mercy Health Hit With Class Action Over Data Breach
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KY3. Family Sues Mercy Hospital Springfield Claims Long Wait Time Led to Mans Death
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Becker’s Hospital Review. Delayed ED Care Led to Mercy Patients Death Lawsuit Claims
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Illinois Appellate Court. Jefferson v. Mercy Hospital and Medical Center
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CaseMine. Peck v. Mercy Health
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EEOC. EEOC Wins Over $4 Million Retaliation Claim Jury Verdict Against Hospital
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EEOC. Mercy Medical Center to Pay $570,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
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Bloomberg Law. Mercy Healths $3.9 Million Retirement Deal OKd After Hiccup