Butler Snow Trial Team Secures Victory for University of Mississippi Medical Center

On November 6, 2025, the Circuit Court of Hinds County, Judge Debra H. Gibbs, entered a Final Judgment with Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in favor of UMMC in the case of Jessica Moore v. UMMC. This case was brought by the mother of a minor plaintiff who suffered a catastrophic brain injury in 2016 from a VP shunt infection caused by the streptococcus bacteria. This case involved complex medical issues arising from whether clinicians should have tapped a VP shunt during a 2016 admission and whether the plaintiff’s ultimate brain injury was caused by UMMC. The medical issues involved fields of pediatric neurosurgery, neuroradiology, and infectious‑disease.

Butler Snow’s trial team of Robbie Greenlee and Beth Roper navigated dueling expert opinions, dense medical records, a sympathetic child plaintiff, and Mississippi’s loss‑of‑chance causation doctrine. The Court held Plaintiff failed to prove proximate cause because, when the shunt infection was later diagnosed at a Louisiana hospital, all treatment options remained available, and the later brainstem injury flowed from post‑discharge treatment choices in which UMMC played no role. The Court also resolved numerous evidentiary objections and Rule 702 challenges, underscoring a context‑specific standard‑of‑care analysis and culminating in a complete defense judgment for UMMC.