Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

In a rare blog post, here we are giving advice on how to avoid germs and avoid hospitals while traveling over the upcoming holiday season. Illnesses and trips to hospitals sometimes follow after flights. For example, in 1994, a woman transmitted tuberculosis to at least six of her fellow passengers. Here are tips to avoid that hospital trip:

1. Sit near the front of the airplane. There is better airflow in the front of the aircraft.
2. Do not drink coffee or tea on the airplane. The EPA shows that water in airplanes’ water tanks isn’t always clean and coffee and tea are made from that water, not bottled water.
3. Sanitize your hands after leaving an airplane bathroom.
4. Wash or sanitize your hands after getting off an escalator.
5. Wash or sanitize your hands after using an ATM.

For the full article.

Residents, workers and visitors are complaining about headaches and cold/allergic symptoms while they are at work in a Georgia hospital. The problem: mold and mildew that is so prominent workers can smell it. Workers began complaining and when nothing was done, filed lawsuits. The CDC has stated that “Mold can cause or worsen certain illnesses.” When patients enter a hospital, they surely are not hoping that their illness worsen. Additionally immuno-suppressed patients, those with AIDS, cancer or organ transplants, can suffer from fungal infections due to the mold and mildew. Although mold is more prominent in humid conditions, it is possible that mold and mildew are present in Chicago hospitals. To read the full story, click here.

Surveillance footage from a hospital shows a woman falling from a chair, writhing on the floor, and, finally, dying, as workers fail to react for over an hour. Esmin Green, 49, waited in the emergency room for almost 24 hours until she fell face down on the floor from the chair she was sitting in. She fell at 5:32 a.m., by 6:35 a.m., when a medical staff member who was flagged down by another person in the waiting room nudged Green’s body with her foot, she was dead. Until that staffer was summoned, Green hardly drew any attention. Patients sitting nearby did not react at all, security guards and a hospital staff member seemed to have noticed her body a minimum of three times, but, from the video, it does not appear that any of them attempted to aid her. In fact, one security guard could not even be bothered to leave his chair, instead, he rolled it around the corner, stared at her body, then rolled it back. Green had been involuntarily committed the day before the incident and was still waiting for a bed when she fell; her body stopped moving approximately half an hour after she fell. Reportedly six people have been fired because of the incident, amongst those let go are security personnel and staff members.

This is not the first issue with the hospital’s mental health unit, which was sued last year by the state’s Mental Hygiene Legal Service and Civil Liberties Union, who called the unit “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.” The lawsuit further states that patients who complained too much were occasionally handcuffed, beaten, or injected with psychotropic drugs. The parties in that suit went before a judge on Tuesday where the hospital agreed to institute reforms, including checking on patients in the waiting room every 15 minutes. Additionally, the hospital will make attempts to shorten the average waiting time to 10 hours within the next four months.

Adding to the shocking situation is the fact that Green’s medical records appear to have been altered or falsely filled out in an attempt to cover up the incident. For example, there is a note for 6 a.m. that claims she was “awake, up and about” and another 20 minutes later claiming she was sitting in the waiting room and that her blood pressure was normal, in actuality, Green was either dead or writhing on the floor during those times.

It is unclear whether Green’s family will seek to file a wrongful death lawsuit for this apparent medical malpractice. To read more about Green's shocking death click here.

Illnesses, injuries and infections caused by medical mistakes or negligence in hospitals will no longer be covered by Medicare, the government health insurance program for senior citizens. This new initiative can save the lives and wellbeing of patients because it will make doctors and hospitals more accountable for preventable errors and force them to adhere more closely to policies and procedures. Private insurers are considering implementing a similar policy, which could save Americans money.

The preventable conditions that will not be covered by Medicare include surgical tools left inside patients after surgery, incompatible blood or air embolisms, bedsores or pressure ulcers developed during a hospital stay, injuries resulting from falls in the hospital, and infections caused by extended use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder and infections at a surgical site after coronary artery bypass surgery. Some hospital spokesmen have expressed concerns that, for instance, bedsores are sometimes unpreventable. The conditions that have been chosen to be excluded from Medicare coverage are not arbitrary, however. They have been chosen by experts that believe they can be reasonably prevented. Levin & Perconti, for example, settled a case for $1 million recently when a nursing home claimed that a patient’s severe pressure sores were not avoidable. The patient, however, was able to completely recover when moved to a different facility. The included injuries were chosen by experts and stand as federal recognition that they are avoidable and can be prevented by stronger adherence to policies and procedures.

Click here for the full article

The family of an Illinois man is suing an out of state hospital for negligence. The personal injury suit alleges that inattention and the failure to provide ordinary care resulted in the Illinois' man's fall. This fall would be fatal, as injuries from the fall ultimately led to the wrongful death. If the hospital had provided adequate care, the fall could have been avoided.

Click here for the full article.

In 2002, the National Quality Forum created a list of adverse medical malpractice issues and in 2006, they updated it. This list contains serious medical malpractice events that are easily preventable and have dire consequences.

1. Switching donor eggs or sperm, resulting in paternity mixups.
2. Leaving of sponges or instruments inside a surgery patient.
3. Disappearance of a patient from a facility.
4. Medication errors (wrong drug, wrong patient, wrong dose, etc.)
5. Giving wrong blood type.
6. Electric shock to a patient.
7. Fall of a patient.
8. Surgery on wrong body part of body.
9. Surgery performed on wrong patient.
10. Wrong surgery performed on patient.
11. Death during or after surgery on a healthy patient under anesthesia.
12. Contaminated drugs or medical devices.
13. Medical device malfunction or improper use.
14. Air embolisms.
15. Babies discharged to wrong parents.
16. Patient suicide.
17. Death or injury of a mother during low-risk pregnancy.
18. A patient developing hypoglycemia.
19. Failing to identify high bilirubin in infants, leading to death.
20. Advanced pressure sores.
21. Death or injury in spine manipulative therapy.
22. Oxygen or other gas lines being switched or contaminated.
23. Burn of a patient.
24. Injury or death from restraints or bed rails.
25. Impersonation of a health care working
26. Kidnapping of a patient.
27. Sexual assault of a patient.
28. Assault or battery between staffers.

For more information about the list.

The family of a woman who was a patient at city hospital in February 2005 is suing the hospital for failing to provide a safe environment, failing to prevent multiple falls, and failing to properly monitor the victim whiles she was a patient. According to the complaint, the hospital negligently failed to place the woman on a “fall precaution” list.

While a patient at the hospital, the victim fractured her right hip, which required surgery and the placement of a compression screw and a side plate. The family states that the victim endured serious pain and suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress. Her ability to enjoy life was adversely affected.

For the full article.