Elizabeth Hernandez

Hernandez primarily handles catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death and premises liability cases. She is the secretary on the executive committee of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, where she was a 2020 trial lawyer of the year nominee. She is the executive board vice-president for 2021-2022 of the Mexican American Bar Association.

She moved to Dordick in 2021 from the Los Angeles medical malpractice firm Michels & Lew APLC, not long after her success as second chair on a major $10.85 million wrongful death verdict in the case of a woman who suffered profound bleeding after a C-section delivery at Montclair Hospital Medical Center in San Bernardino County. Li v. Lee, CIVDS1621591 (S. Bernardino Co. Sup. Ct., filed Dec. 20, 2016).

The plaintiffs were the family of Qiao Chen, a 36-year-old mother pregnant with twins who were delivered in July 2016. During the C-section, severe bleeding led to her transfer to a post anesthesia care unit where her vital signs deteriorated. According to Hernandez and lead counsel Philip Michels, the hospital’s blood bank was understaffed and failed to promptly deliver needed blood products. Lab tests on the wrong blood sample misled the physician who ordered them. In the intensive care unit, the mother’s condition worsened; immediate surgery was delayed because the anesthesiologist had left the hospital; following the delayed surgery the mother became brain dead.

“In a split second our client, the husband, became a single parent of three,” Hernandez said. “When something horrific like that happens it is important to connect. I went to Mr. Li’s house to spend time with him, to get an idea about their family life, to get him to open up. Part of my job was to get him in the proper mindset for the deposition and then for the trial.”

At the nine-week trial, the defense blamed Qiao Chen’s death on the negligence of other physicians including the anesthesiologist for failing to promptly respond to and manage the patient’s evolving shock. It also contended that the loss of support claims should be offset by Social Security death benefits. And it argued that the patient delayed in consenting to a hysterectomy.

“Mr. Li was on the stand for two days and the jury was in tears,” Hernandez said. “I had assured him that it was ok to open up, to show emotion, and he did.”

The jurors deliberated for three days. “Something switched on, and the jury really connected with him. It helped the case. It was sad and unfortunate, but this is the form of justice we have, and justice was served,” Hernandez said.

— John Roemer