Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

A Collinsville, Illinois woman claims her daughter died after her doctor allegedly failed to provide her with proper pre-natal care. She filed the medical malpractice lawsuit against both the hospital and physician. The medical malpractice lawsuit claims that the doctor breached her duty of care by failing to monitor or assess the fetal viability during the pregnancy in light of the existing medical conditions. Also, the doctor failed to treat the mother’s diabetes in order to properly ensure fetal development. Finally, the medical malpractice lawsuit states that because the doctor failed to intervene when the fetus became distressed her daughter died. The Illinois lawsuit seeks more than $400,000 in damages. To read all of the medical malpractice counts, please click the link.

A couple is suing their doctor for medical malpractice claiming that the physician deviated from appropriate medical standards. A medical malpractice attorney filed the lawsuit on their behalf, claiming that the plaintiff was injured as a result of this negligence. The lawsuit claims that the doctor supposedly failed to see the patient for almost 10 days post-surgery and that the patient was prematurely discharged from the hospital. The victim then suffered a severe infection that required multiple treatments, great physical pain and suffering, and mental anguish and anxiety. The patient has acquired over $200,000 in medical expenses. To learn more about the medical malpractice lawsuit, please click the link.

A former student athlete and his parents have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against his doctors and hospitals nearly a year after a flesh-eating bacterium led to the amputation of his legs. The medical malpractice lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $25,000 and was filed against more than 15 doctors, their companies and two hospitals. The young athlete was a captain of the rowing team last year when he felt pain in his lower calf muscle. This sent him to the emergency room where doctors diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis which is a rare strep infection. He was on life support four days later and flown to a medical center. Doctors had to amputate both his legs above the knee and he was given less than a 20 percent chance of survival. The medical malpractice lawsuit claims that his care fell below accepted medical standards and that his parents were not properly informed of a treatment plan. To learn more about the medical malpractice lawsuit, please click the link.

A man who suffered gangrene after surgery won a large jury award for medical malpractice against his doctors and hospital. The man underwent heart surgery for an improperly functioning valve. His doctors did not monitor him for blood clotting and he developed gangrene. The gangrene resulted in amputation of several limbs. The jury awarded the man $10 million in medical malpractice damages.

Read more about the medical malpractice claim here.

A medical malpractice lawsuit was recently filed on behalf of a family who lost their 22-month old daughter as a result of medical negligence. In May 2007, the child was taken to a hospital’s emergency room with a fever. Within an hour of being at the hospital, her temperature rose to 105.7 degrees. Despite this rise, the attending doctor in the emergency room sent her home. The family returned to the emergency room where the child died less than an hour after arriving at the hospital. The lawsuit alleges that the attending physician was negligent because he deviated from the standard of care by sending the family home. Instead, tests should have been run to measure her blood counts. To read more about this medical malpractice lawsuit, follow the link.

A lawyer won $7.5 million for her client whose doctor “failed to correctly diagnose and treat a hospital infection that led to gangrene in both his arms and legs.” The patient originally went to the hospital for ulcer treatment but then had to have his limbs amputated from his doctor’s negligence. The infection the patient had contracted was methicillin - resistant Staphylcoccus Aureus which is a common infection found in hospitals. Although the patient informed the doctors at the hospital of his symptoms that were clearly MRSA signs, they failed to diagnose him.

Read more about the lawsuit here.

The failure to diagnose acute appendicitis is one of the most common medical mistakes leading to medical malpractice lawsuits. As many as 30% of patients with acute appendicitis were initially misdiagnosed by a physician at a pervious medical examination. The most common diagnosis in missed appendicitis cases is Agastroenteritis. Delayed or missed diagnosis of acute appendicitis can have serious consequences including death, recurrent small bowel obstruction, impaired fertility in women, and extended hospital stays. Acute appendicitis should be considered a possible diagnosis with all complaints of abdominal pain. For the full article, click here.

Closing arguments were heard in the medical malpractice trial involving the death of a high school student while under the care of an orthopedic surgeon. The trial presented uncontested facts that the girl underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in early April of 2004. Near the end of that month the girl’s physical therapist noted that the girl had swelling in one calf and that she complained of pain, yet the orthopedic surgeon did not note the inflammation or order any special tests to rule out such possibilities as a blood clot. Three days later, the girl died of massive pulmonary embolism from a blood clot. The state’s medical review panel could not conclude whether there was medical malpractice. The jury is currently deliberating on the medical malpractice trial. To read the full story, click here.

Recent reviews have found there are an abundance of cancer treatment errors found at various clinics throughout the United States, especially in outpatient clinics. In 1,400 patient charts that were examined, a total of 117 errors were found. 15 caused harm to patients while 64 errors had the potential to cause harm, according to the article. The study showed 60% of the errors associated with adult cases were due to administration of treatment. 64% of the pediatric errors was linked to the ordering of medication.

For the full story, click here.

Doctors found that women who were overweight or obese and underwent breast surgery were more likely to develop lymphedema, a chronic condition of painful swelling in the arm or shoulder area. According to Doctor Jane Armer, diagnosis of lymphedema can be difficult. She also said it “often goes undiagnosed and untreated by physicians and patients.”

For the full story, click here.

A state medical board has reprimanded and fined a physician at a hospital in connection with a 2004 case in which a 40-year-old woman died while awaiting discharged. The woman came to the emergency room complaining of pain that she described as an “elephant sitting on [her] chest.” The doctor ordered standard lab work, a chest X ray and an EKG. The patient appeared to be improving, but then “experienced ventricular fibrillation” and died. A board-appointed peer reviewer found that the doctor’s actions failed to conform to minimum standards both as to diagnosis and to treatment. The doctor will be fined $5,000 and complete 15 hours of additional continuing medical education. The doctor will also pay $400 to the board as reimbursement of administrative fees and agree that a consent order will be placed on his physician profile. This is yet another example of how medical malpractice leads to a wrongful death. To read the full story, click here.

A lawsuit against an allegedly negligent hospital and negligent surgeon comes after a death post-surgery. A 39 year old woman died after gastric bypass surgery, she is survived by her husband who claims that the hospital was negligent by failing to monitor the patient and by doing surgery when the patient was not a good candidate for it. A lawsuit has been filed for both the personal injuries sustained by the patient before her death and also for damages that the family has suffered after the death in the hospital. The medical malpractice lawsuit claims that both the doctor and hospital were negligent in the surgery and treatment of the patient. To read the full story click here.

A medical malpractice lawsuit has resulted in a multi-million dollar medical malpractice award for a widow whose husband died as a result of a hospital’s negligence. The death in the hospital came as a result when the patient, a 49 year old male, was not properly monitored by hospital personnel. Although the settlement has resulted in a large medical malpractice settlement it is likely that due to caps on settlements the widow will not be able to obtain the full amount. The wrongful death and negligence suit against the hospital may cause the hospital to closely monitor and supervise patients in the future but for one couple the money will not be able to bring back their lives together. To read the full story click here.

Levin & Perconti has filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit for the death of baby Kaylee Persky in Champaign County, Illinois. Kaylee was a patient at the Carle Foundation Hospital where the hospital and its staff failed to monitor her medical condition. She died at age 20 months on August 31, 2006. Jeffrey E. Martin, a partner at the firm, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Kaylee’s surviving family members.

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A multimillion dollar settlement has been reached in a wrongful death action against a medical center. A hospital patient died after she drowned in the shower at the hospital because of a failure to supervise the patient’s condition and ability to shower by herself. The medical malpractice suit also alleged that the hospital was negligent by altering medical records, failing to supervise its patients and tampering with evidence. The five million dollar medical malpractice lawsuit will never however be able to bring back the patient whose wrongful death left her family facing tragedy. To read the full story click here.

Levin & Perconti has filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County on behalf of Devron Matthews’s family after his recent death. The suit was filed on July 24, 2008.

On August 19, 2007, Devron, a known asthmatic, was taken to the emergency room at Weiss Hospital on Chicago’s north side for complaints of shortness of breath and a high fever. Despite being diagnosed with pneumonia and having a dangerous blood gas reading, Devron was not monitored properly, and his breathing status deteriorated throughout the morning. He was transferred from the Emergency Room to a non acute setting in an unstable condition. Devron went into respiratory failure and suffered a full cardiopulmonary arrest in the morning hours of August 29, 2007. During this time, his brain was deprived of oxygen and he sustained permanent brain damage.

Devron was placed life support and remained in intensive care as a result of his brain damage. After intensive care, he continued to exist in a vegetative state, always in nursing or hospital care, until his death on May 2, 2008 at age 20. Devron is survived directly by his two sisters and his mother.

A west coast man has settled his medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital. The $5 million settlement will help to compensate him for a lifetime of 24 hour care that he now needs. When he entered the hospital with a fever and cough, doctors diagnosed him with acute renal failure. He was given increasing doses of sedatives and claims that he was not monitored by the hospital staff, leading him to suffer cardio-respiratory failure and be down for nine minutes. The man suffered an anoxic brain injury, meaning that his brain was deprived of oxygen, which causes severe brain damage.

Read more here.

A study in the May issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery shows that the rate of limb amputation is higher in Chicago’s black communities than in suburban white communities. The data showed that blacks in Chicago are five times more likely to have a limb amputated than suburban whites. Notably, many amputations are preventable. Limb amputations can often be the product of low quality health care and doctor errors, poor access to health care resources, and a doctor's failure to give information about procedures and treatments. One of the more common causes of amputations is untreated pressure sores that may result from diabetes and heart disease.

Read the news story here.

One of the greatest organizational problems facing hospitals today is the battle over medical records. Many patients find that it can take months or years to get a hold of their own medical records after treatment. Even worse, some families of victims of medical malpractice or wrongful death have waited for years to obtain their loved one’s medical records from hospitals. Often, lost or missing records are simply part of hospital error and not a deliberate attempt to delay, but on some occasions hospitals may frustrate a patient’s records request purposefully. Patients and victims’ families must be aware that statutes of limitation often require that medical malpractice lawsuits be filed within a certain period of time after the injury occurs or is discovered. This means that patients and victims’ families must decide to file a medical malpractice lawsuit and contact their medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible and begin the medical records request process.

Read more here.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently released its patient survey where hospital patients rate their experiences and patient care in a format much like a restaurant guide.

The survey showed some troubling results for Chicago area hospitals including some reports of patient dissatisfaction and hospital care statistics that need serious attention. For instance, four out of ten Illinois hospital patients responding to the survey indicated that they had to wait longer than expected when they needed help or called for assistance. Nearly one third of Illinois hospital patients felt that the hospital did not manage their pain properly. Additionally, only 57% of hospital patients thought that the hospital’s staff properly explained the benefits and risks of medication before administering it.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to make this survey mandatory for every US hospital; though the survey was voluntary in 2007, the Department will reduce Medicare funding for hospitals that do not participate in the survey.

Read the full news story here, and access the survey here.