Jury awards $383M in wrongful death lawsuits against DaVita

A federal jury in Denver has awarded $383.5 million to the families of three patients who died of cardiac arrest after treatments at clinics run by dialysis provider DaVita Inc.

Attorneys for the families say the Denver-based company treated the patients with GranuFlo, a product known to cause toxic pH imbalances. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled GranuFlo in 2012, and the wrongful deaths lawsuits were filed against DaVita in 2013 alleging negligence and fraud.

The Denver Post reports jurors on Wednesday awarded each of the three parties $125 million in punitive damages, with compensatory damages ranging from $1.5 million to $5 million.

DaVita officials say the company plans to file an appeal seeking to overturn the verdict.