A jury found an Iowa doctor liable for the death of a Scott County man

SCOTT Co., Iowa (KCRG) – This week, a jury found an Iowa doctor liable for the 2020 death of a Scott County man.

Steve Schwarz underwent surgery on his neck, but after a few weeks, he started to regress and later died. A jury awarded the man’s family $1.645 million.

“My dad was amazing, he was this honest family man,” said Heather Barrett, Steve’s daughter.

Barrett said her dad was an active 67-year-old. He loved riding his UTV, taking road trips, and helping his 9-siblings with work on the family farm.

He was a fun-loving, fun-spirited, fun guy to be around,” she said.

But in 2020, he started experiencing weakness in his arms and tingling affecting his everyday life. Schwarz had surgery to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord.

“We were speaking with him several times a day, and he seemed well-spirited, and he seemed glad it was over,” she said.

Schwarz had contracted MRSA while at UIHC before he was discharged from the hospital to Cedar Manor in Tipton. Court documents show it was noted in Schwarz medical records that he was taking antibiotics for the bacterial infection. Court records showed that his health took a turn when he was under the care of Dr. Michelle Sprengelmeyer. She was the doctor in charge of making sure Schwarz continued to receive the antibiotic, but she didn’t follow that order according to the medical malpractice lawsuit. He was without that medication for about 20 days and died.

“The sad part of this is that it never should have happened,” said Anthony Bribriesco.

Anthony and his father, Bill, represented Barrett’s family in the wrongful death lawsuit. They said medical records showed the doctor failed to verify his medication, make a reasonable treatment plan, and recognize when Schwarz’s pain grew, and his health started regressing.

“Instead of doing your job and carefully reading the medical records, she signed off on an antibacterial that prematurely stopped his life-saving antibiotics,” he said.

Barrett said it wasn’t justice for her and her family, but at least Sprengelmeyer was being held accountable for the death of her father.

“My dad was this incredibly honest person that believed in accountability, and so in some small way we have at least got that sense of accountability,” said Barrett.

TV9 did contact Dr. Sprengelmeyer’s lawyer for comment but had not heard back by the time this article was published. Sprengelmeyer also no longer works at Cedar Manor in Tipton.

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