Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

The Chicago Tribune reported last week on a verdict in a new medical malpractice lawsuit because of the conduct of staff members at Edward Hospital in Naperville.

The Chicago-area medical negligence medical affected a young thirty year old patient and her unborn child several years ago. The victim was 14 weeks pregnant when she was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pains. Edward Hospital staff members brought her to the postpartum unit but received little to no care while there. The nurses in the unit failed to monitor any changes in her condition or the growing problems with her unborn child. This lackluster care was given even though she told her medical caregivers that she had suffered a twisted intestine when she was a child.

It was only several hours after arriving that the victim lost consciousness and medical officials finally took action. By that time, however, her child was dead and her small intestine was beyond saving. She required a small intestine transplant a month later at a different hospital. However, she will suffer medical issues for the rest of her life because of the medical mistake.

Even more distressing the ongoing medical problems will have severe complications for any of the woman’s future pregnancy attempts. Her attorney explained, “With all the risk factors, the risks are too great to have a natural child.”

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti continue to represent victims of inadequate medical care like this in hopes that future medical care will improve. It is only when problems are brought to the attention of the hospital and the mistakes are corrected that progress can actually be made to improve medical care at all times for all patients. If you have questions about the quality of care you or a loved one received at a local hospital, please contact a medical malpractice lawyer.

Several recent letters to the editor published in the New York Times emphasize important points in the on-going debate about tort reform laws, medical care standards, and the rights of victims of medical malpractice. Recent comments made by Administration Official Peter Orszag suggesting immunity for some doctors who follow certain guidelines has renewed the debate.

In particular, physician groups and patients’ rights groups have disagreed on the value of specific guidelines to practicing medicine. In one of the letters, Gibson Vance, President of the American Association for Justice, explains that the notion of specific guidelines may be attractive on its face, but it is completely impractical in reality. For example, when mammogram guidelines were created, doctors felt handcuffed by the fact that the standard may have suggested no test was needed—even though he or she personally felt one should have been given.

The focus around the entire debate needs to be refocused on reducing the thousands of costly medical mistakes each year, not merely providing immunity to certain caregivers.

Of course these evidence-based analyses should play a role in determining what is or is not malpractice, but the entire process of deducing proper care cannot be sublimated to those generic factors. For one thing, there will always be disagreement between practitioners regarding certain standards. Those standards themselves may change over time or be proven wrong. When a wrong diagnosis is made, strict adherence to those standards may then lead to even further complications.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti support the broad understanding that medical standards help in determining proper care, but we believe that those guidelines remain part of the process, not the entire process. Doctors’ should not be given blanket immunities for a rigid set of actions regardless of the harm those actions cause their patient. The system must remain fluid and medical malpractice victims must keep their access to the justice system—allowing them the chance to share their story and allow a jury to provide rulings as intended.

The Huffington Post recently included an article from the Center for Justice and Democracy that sheds light on the reality behind victim’s access to the court system following medical malpractice and medical insurance rates.

Most are aware of the claims made about rising insurance rates for medical care providers and the connection to medical malpractice lawsuits. Lawyers and victims’ right advocates have been vilified in some circles for the apparent increase in medical malpractice insurance rates. Many claim that jury verdicts and victimized Americans patients who seek accountability for negligent doctors are the true culprits behind a problematic rise in insurance costs. The advocates of this view are the ones urging that access to the justice system be cut-off to regular Americans. Unfortunately, in many areas the changes have already been made and consumers have lost legal rights.

However, looking at the insurance rates over the an extended period of time reveals clearly that rates have gone up and down in several cycles over the past decades, irrespective of jury awards or victims’ lawsuits.

The reality is that insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws, meaning that they are allowed to collectively raise rates. In that way, the industry fluctuates between soft and hard markets. In soft market times, the companies are fiercely competitive, lowering rates. In hard market times, the companies collectively increase rates.

The fact remains that there is little connection between these market fluctuations and changes in the number of medical malpractice lawsuits or the right of victims to seek justice.

Victims deserve a fair day in court—there is nothing to fear about allowing justice to play out exactly how it was intended. Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti will never give up the fight for accountable medical care, equal protection, and logical improvements in our nation’s healthcare system. We will continue to stand up against corporate interests that seek to take away average Americans right to justice.

There is much more information to share on this important topic. Please Click Here to read more.

Chances are that within 5 minutes of turning on the television these days you will treated to at least one campaign ad urging support for a candidate or smearing another. With so many heated elections to be decided next Tuesday, the flurry of campaign activity has reached a fevered pitch.

In the middle of the chaos is one election with real implications for all those who care about safe medical care and the rights of victims of malpractice. This year one our Illinois Supreme Court Justices, Thomas Kilbride, is up for a retention election. He is not running against an opponent, but according to state rules must have at least 60% of voters vote “Yes” to retain him as a Justice on our state’s highest court. Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti highly endorse Justice Kilbride and urge voters to retain this fair-minded, intelligent, logic legal leader.

Unfortunately, a few very specific special-interest groups are working to disparage Justice Kilbride’s record in an effort to confuse voters. Fortunately, a wide-range of respected organizations are working to set to record straight and condemn the unfair attacks on the Justice.

For example, this week the Illinois Judges Association recently re-stated its support for Justice Kilbride and against the ouch-of-touch special interest strategy attacking him. They explain that these vicious strategies used in retention elections threaten to ruin the fairness and impartiality of our nation’s justice system. Unlike legislative and executive campaigns, the judicial branch of government requires even-handed logical decision-making and rule application as its benchmark. Campaign tactics with slick production ads and slanted truth seeks only to advance a few special interests at the expense for a balanced justice system for all.

Justice Thomas Kilbride has worked hard to make decision based on law, not policy, as the state constitution requires. He has followed that basic principle regarding all issues from access to the courts and criminal justice to business rights and all other issues that make it to the court. That fair-minded effort has recently been distorted and misrepresented by interests working to get their “own” justice on the court who will make decisions based on who got them into the position instead of what the law requires. We cannot afford to allow these groups to infect our legal system.

Please get more information about Justice Kilbride and make an informed decision this Tuesday. Vote YES to retain Tom Kilbride and urge your friends and family to do the same. Do your part to help ensure the Illinois court remains a strong, fair, logical system of justice.

The American Association of Justice issued a new report today that highlights a clear example of hypocrisy by a major interest group involved in the U.S. Justice System.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent millions of dollars and focused immense resources on lobbying campaigns aimed at limiting regular consumers’ access to the courthouse. The group’s affiliate, the Institute for Legal Reform, works every day to add barriers and restrictions to the right of individuals harmed by corporations to file lawsuits against those corporations.

Groups like the U.S. Chamber have worked hard to bar the courtroom door. But a new AAJ report explains that the U.S. Chamber itself files hundreds of lawsuits each year to advance its own interests. Apparently the justice system is only fair to the Chamber when they are doing the suing.

The Chamber’s President and CEO explained this week that litigation was, “one of our most powerful tools for making sure that the federal agencies follow the law and are held accountable.”

The National Chamber Litigation Center, the part of the organization charged with filing lawsuits on behalf of the group, annually initiates over 130 suits. Nearly 2 times a week, the group is at it again using the court system to advance it goals—while at the same time claiming that regular individuals shouldn’t have fair access to that same court system.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti continually work for the opposite cause: to allow all victims the same balanced access to the nation’s justice system. We do not believe that there is anything wrong with allowing our truth-finding judicial process to play out. There is nothing to fear from allowing potential medical victims, no matter where they come from or how much money they have, to enjoy their day in court. In that way, the system truly creates a level playing field where single individuals can stand up to anyone and seek justice.

As the AAJ President explains, “The Chamber has every right to seek what it believes to be justice in a court of law, even if representing the most deplorable corporate interests. But it must learn that this right to justice belongs not just to their organization or big business generally, but to all Americans.”

To read more about this shameful example of unequal access to American Justice, check out the full AAJ report Here.

Our product liability lawyers at Levin & Perconti have been following the unfolding developments in the DePuy implant recall in an effort to raise awareness with potential victims. The recall affects nearly 100,000 implant packages, causing an untold number of patients to suffer failure of their devices. With so many potentially defective devices, many patients who received DePuy implants are unsure of what they should do.

First, if you have had a hip implant, be sure to contact your doctor to see if it was made by DePuy.

For those who discover that they were fitted with a recalled hip implant, many are wondering whether they have to wait for their own implant to fail before taking steps to contact a lawyer or seek redress. However, as emphasized by Lawyers and Settlement News, it is vitally important for all implant recipients to remember, that there is no need to wait for severe problems to arise before at least talking to a product liability lawyer. In that way you can learn about the latest developments in the recall effort.

In addition, the lawyer can assist you in getting tested for metallosis, which is a problem caused by metal shards entering the body. The shards are common in DePuy hip implants because of potential design defects caused by rubbing in the metal-on-metal device. Metallosis is a problem that an implant patient may be suffering from without even knowing it.

Of course it goes without saying that if you have a DePuy implant and begin feeling severe problems, you should seek medical attention immediately. Any pain in the hip, popping, grinding, or clicking might mean that the device is failing.

If that is the case, you may need revision surgery which involves potential complications and long recovery times. That revision procedure can be complex and painful. If that occurs, it is imperative that you contact a lawyer to learn more about the legal situation to protect your rights.

The DePuy company, a part of Johnson & Johnson, has already been alleged to have defectively designed the product, knowing that it would fail at higher rates. In addition they failed to adequately warn patients about the risks or conduct proper tests to ensure the safety of the devices.

Contact a lawyer for a consultation to share your story and learn about the legal landscape.

A new study reported by Scripps News highlights a troubling problem in the medical community: the inadequate information given by doctors to their patients.

It is well accepted that all patients have the right to understand the medical options in front of them before making a decision about the care that they would like to pursue. It is equally established that all medical professionals must receive informed consent from patients before proceeding on any course of treatment. To receive that consent, patients must be made aware of the benefits and risks associated with different procedures. Doctors must ensure that they explain this in plain language; failure to do so is a possible case of medical malpractice.

However, a new study out of the University of Michigan indicates that doctors often fail to adequately explain the cons of any course of action, while overemphasizing the possible benefits. The research used data from the past two years involving doctor explanations of a broad range of medical issues like breast cancer screenings, hypertension, high cholesterol, joint replacement, back pain, and many other ailments.

Overall, doctors were found to be much more likely to explain the benefits instead of the possible negatives of treatments. Only 20% of breast cancer screening patients, for example, heard anything about possible problems like false positives. The vast majority of patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs had not been warned of the common side effects like headache, nausea, and digestive tract problems.

Dr. Michael Barry, a Harvard Medical School professor explains, “The study clearly demonstrates that people routinely make poorly informed medical decisions.”

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti firmly believe that patients deserve a balanced explanation of the treatment options in front of them. It is only in that way that they can make an informed decision about what procedures they would like to pursue. If you believe that a doctor has failed in this regard leading to harm, be sure to contact a medical malpractice lawyer.

Boston News recently discussed a little known facet of patient care—the increased risks that come when patients are transferred from one caregiver to another. A new report by a national medical care oversight group, the Joint Commission, spurred the renewed interest in the importance of ensuring orderly, safe, and thorough transfer of care from one doctor to another.

Shockingly, the Commission information suggests that nearly 80% of the most serious medical mistakes are caused by communication problems when patients go from one medical care provider to another. In other words, the original doctor often fails to share important information with the new team. This results in a myriad of medical problems which can and should be prevented.

Even the most basic transfer protocols are often ignored, like ensuring that the new physician has the contact information for the sending doctor.

To help combat the problem, some hospitals are just now taking steps to prevent this egregious breakdown in medical care. The solutions include creating standardizes list of crucial information to transfers, like particular allergies and pending tests. In particular, medical mistake experts are focusing on improvements when patients are transferred from community hospitals to medicine departments and from a nursing home to the emergency room.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti fight for victims of medical mistakes no matter what form they take or what their cause. Our principle is simple: all patients deserve a reasonable standard of care at all times; we will defend their right to that care when violated. It is heartbreaking to consider the lives that have been destroyed simply because one medical team did not explain basic patient information to another. If you may have fallen victim to this mistake, contact a medical malpractice lawyer to learn about your medical rights.

The stories continue to roll in alleging severe complications, flaws, and information problems related to hip implants made by DePuy Orthopaedics. This latest lawsuit reported in AboutLawsuits.com alleges that the company, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, lied to patients when making claims that it would reimburse them if they experienced problems following the implant.

The claims stem from the implant maker’s recall of DePuy ASR XL Acetabular Systems. This particular metal-on-metal implant was found to fail in at least 13% of patients, causing complications and risky surgery to fix the problem. The problems affected nearly 100,000 implants.

Specifically, the new lawsuit involves claims made by the company to patients indicating that DePuy would reimburse patients for out-of-pocket medical expenses if they signed a release proving the company with access to their medical record. In truth, the company is only committing to reimbursing patients in cases when DePuy officials themselves unilaterally chose to. Essentially this means that many patients are signing away important legal rights. The deception is making it difficult for victims of the implant problems from receiving important compensation to help cover their costs.

In recent weeks our product recall lawyers at Levin & Perconti have repeatedly urged all those who may have been affected by these hip recall problems to contact professional legal help. As this latest development makes clear, literally thousands and thousands of patients may have suffered (and continue to suffer) because of faulty design, inadequate information, and misleading data about these DePuy hip implants. It is vitally important to contact professional legal help before signing any documents that may affect your legal rights.

Do not allow this potential medical complication to go unchecked. If you or a loved one has gotten a hip replacement recently, contact a medical professional to determine if it falls within this latest recall. Also, be sure to speak with a product recall attorney to ensure the legal matters are handled fairly and accurately.

An opinion editorial recently in the New York Times suggested increasing ways to immunize doctors for malpractice liability. However, the respected economist’s article missed a few major points concerning the legal issues surrounding the health and well-being of injured patients. The AAJ penned a response to the editorial to highlight those discrepancies and omissions.

First, the AAJ noted that it is impractical to craft specific guidelines to keep some doctors free from liability for the medical mistakes that they make. As with all additional layers of beuracracy, piling new guidelines on top of existing regimes typically takes years to create and rarely have beneficial effects upon their implementation. Besides that, standards vary significantly in different areas and often need to remain flexible to account for the supreme goal: the proper care of the patient.

Second, cries for immunity simply ignore the very real and growing problem of medical errors that continue to poison our health-care system. With a death toll reaching toward 100,000 each year and a cost of $29 billion annually, focus needs to return on eliminating mistakes not making excuses for them.

Third, the current legal framework allows for significant immunity in that states with medical caps virtually forbid certain patient victims from having any sort of legal recourse at all. An additional barrier to victim recovery is unwarranted.

Finally, these proposed changes would do little to nothing to reduce the cost of health care. As damage caps have shown, these sort of arbitrary barriers to recovery have not been shown to produce monetary savings. Instead they only stack the odds even more against victims’ ability to seek redress following their suffering.

Medical malpractice is obviously a stark problem that requires focused attention and original thinking. However, our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti strongly believe that the attention needs to be paid on making changes that improve the quality of care, not put barriers up against the victims of the errors.

We have previously discussed a lawsuit involving a girl injured following an inoculation she received as a young child. The New York Times recently editorialized on the family’s quest to hold the makers of the damaging vaccine accountable reached the United States Supreme Court last week, when the Justices heard oral arguments in the case Bruesewitz v. Wyeth.

The outcome of the case will have repercussions in many other pending lawsuits in which injured individuals have filed state lawsuits against the manufacturers of vaccines that cased them harm. In that way, it will set an important benchmark for all those interested in patients’ rights and the fair recovery for families suffering following vaccine problems.

Specifically, the heart of the case concerns the legal concept known as “pre-emption.” The term involves determining when a federal law overrides a state law on a certain topic—in this case, the right to sue manufacturers for vaccine mistakes. The drug companies are arguing that a federal law which regulates federal claims of this nature should force the state law to operate in the same way. In other words, they assert that if a type of vaccine lawsuit is not allowed in the federal court system, than it also should not be allowed according to state law.

However, on the other side, patients’ rights groups rightful argue that our justice system has always honored the federalist tradition, where state laws are free to diverge from federal laws so long as the federal law did not specifically intend to force the hand of all state legislatures across the country. The Supreme Court has stated clearly that there is a strong presumption against pre-emption. States should be free to protect citizens in certain ways, even if the federal government does not.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti continue to stand by our faith and belief in the legal justice system. At the very least, families suffering because of these inoculation injuries should be given a fair hearing in the court of justice, and the manufacturers should be able to present their defense. We must then trust the judge and jury to weigh the evidence and make the appropriate ruling. Stopping the process before it even reaches that point is arbitrary, unfair, and against the spirit of the judicial system.

The New York Times published a story yesterday that raises awareness to the fact that surgical mistakes continue to harm patients everyday at hospitals across the country. The errors strike even though many hospitals are working to implement protocols which are intended to ensure these preventable problems are eliminated.

Obvious mistakes like leaving equipment in a body or operating on the wrong part of the body are still accidents that occur much more frequently than they should. It takes no medical knowledge to understand the clear breach of basic care in many of these circumstances. For example, a newly released study on surgical errors reveals one case where a chest tube was inserted in the wrong lung, causing its collapse and the death of the patient. Other examples include brain surgeons working on the wrong side of a patient’s brain and back surgeons fusing the wrong vertebrae in the spine.

The new study which brought renewed awareness to the problem was drawn from insurance database and self-reported incidents of medical mistakes over a several year period from 2002 to 2008. In total, the study revealed 25 operations done on the wrong patient entirely and 107 on the wrong body part.

One director of orthopedics observed,” These are catastrophic events that are unacceptable. They have been termed a ‘never event’—because they should never happen again.”

As our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti know, these self-reported numbers are almost guaranteed to drastically understate the true amount of surgical mistakes that strike on our nation’s operating tables each day. The accidents reporting in this study include many clear errors in which it was impossible to cover up. Smaller errors also occur which are frequently never brought to light. Both as a matter of personal health and accountability it is important for all potential victims to take steps to hold the violating surgeons to account.

As new cases of problematic DePuy hip replacement implants continue to roll in, orthopedic surgeons across the country are attempting to handle the crisis by unveiling a new registry to help track the myriad of knee and hip implants problems nationwide.

AboutLawsuits.com is reporting on the effort now known as the American Joint Replacement Registry. The program initially covers only 15 select hospitals but the organizers have plans to expand it to all 5,000 hospitals that perform these procedures. The project intends to keep detailed records of the quality of replacements, helping doctors better understand when an implant may need replacement or when a particular product is shown to deteriorate too quickly.

The DePuy hip recall, involving over 93,000 hip implants, has made clear the need for the registry as many patients who received the defective implants are still unaware that there is a problem with the product. The hope is that the registry will help save future victims of bad implants from the pain of revision as well as the industry the cost. Over $32 billion is spent annually to fix poorly designed and installed replacements.

The concerns for all those who have hip replacements only grows, however, as similar problems are now being reported with another brand of replacement implants: Zimmer NextGen knee replacements. Though not yet recalled, over 36% of Zimmer knee replacements are being shown to come loose too quickly. Investigators believe that the problem is a result of the implant’s design. As a result, like the problematic DePuy implants, these knee implants require expensive and risky revision surgeries.

Our Chicago product liability lawyers at Levin & Perconti are committed to ensuring that all medical equipment, supplies, and implants are safe and secure across the board. When a product is found to be defective, it is vital for all those who may have been exposed to the problematic device to contact a product liability attorney as soon as possible to ensure that their safety is secure and their medical rights are protected. Time is important in these matters, so please do not delay in seeking legal help.

A new article by Modern Healthcare reveals the troubling truth about Medicare auditors’ failure to scrutinize providers who have been found to have committed a large number of medical errors. Typically the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) used historical error-rate data to identify the medical providers who committed the most medical mistakes and billing errors, and then worked to ensure corrective actions was taken.

However, those reviews never occurred for many error-prone facilities. As a result, an astounding $44 billion was paid over 4 years for incorrect procedure like fee-for-service payments stemming from incorrect coding, unnecessary services, and documentation errors.

Over the past 4 years, CMS data revealed that 21% of the inpatient acute-care providers accounted for nearly 59% of the errors—meaning that a smaller group of providers were committed repeated mistakes and compounding the overall problem.

Since the lack of proper auditing has been identified, the inspectors general’s office is recommending that CMS require providers to identify the causes of their errors and create plans to prevent future harm. The new administration is now focused on ensuring that steps are taken to provide better auditing of Medicare errors and corrective plans.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti believe that all medical providers should abide by the law at all times. Lax standards in the form of Medicare payment mistakes indicate a willingness to bend the law and cut corners for financial savings. When that same standard is applied to the treatment of patients, than severe harm is likely to strike. Medical malpractice lawyers are focused on holding those negligent providers accountable for their cost-cutting steps that harm patients to ensuring that steps are taken to correct the errors.

Virtually all patients will undergo some sort of diagnostic imaging during their hospital stays—these tests involve x-rays, MRIs, and CT scans.

A new story by ABC News reminds patients that while these tests are common-place, it is important for patients to remember that dangers associated with these procedures. In fact, the story explains that it is also important for medical professionals themselves to remember the seriousness of these exams.

The importance of these tests cannot be understated, as they are used to help doctors determine exactly what medical problems a patient may be experiencing. Their value unfortunately also means that they are ripe for costly errors. Experts in the field explain that medical problems stemming from x-rays , MRIs, and other imaging comes from communication breakdown between professionals and errors by doctors rather than problems with the scans themselves. For example, there are countless examples of diagnoses that are missed because of misread medical images.

Also, at times there remains a disconnect between a referring doctor and the radiologist trained to review the results of these exams. When this happens, results are often not reviewed in a timely manner, and in the worst case, the patient never learns about severe medical problems from which they suffer.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand the importance of medical tests. It is vital for all patients to ensure that they receive these exams in a timely and safe way. At the same time, it is vital for all medical professionals to use these exams in a proper way and interpret the results in a professional, expert manner. Too often problems in the use and review of the test results lead to additional pain, suffering, and even death to the victims. If you are someone you know may have been affected by this type of medical error, please contact a medical malpractice lawyer to learn about your legal rights.

Please Click Here to read more about the important medical issues related to medical image testing.

Justice Daily News Flash reported last week on an example of an obvious doctor mistake. An investigation was launched by the state department of health following surgical mistake at a Rhode Island hospital.

A patient underwent surgery at the local hospital earlier this summer. Following the procedure, diagnostic imaging revealed that part of a drill bit had been left inside the patient’s body in the operation. Luckily, the drill was removed the next day, and the negligent surgeon and employees were suspended. In many cases, including many reported on this blog, failure to remove all equipment following surgery involves severe pain and medical complications for the patient.

All doctors and other medical professionals are typically required to abide by very specific procedures in surgical operations to avoid this type of mistake. All equipment and supplies used in medical procedures (specifically those in surgeries) need to be accounted for before the procedure is completed. Failure to abide by this logical check-list style safety procedure is an obvious breach of care.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti have devoted decades to helping the victims of all sorts of medical mistakes. The types of hospitals errors vary in many ways. At times the mix-up is obvious to anyone—like leaving a device in a patient as happened in this case. However, in most cases the doctor error involves a more complicated series of deviations from that standard of care that a reasonable doctor would provide in the circumstances. To understand whether that deviation occurred in most circumstances requires investigation of previous cases and doctor actions as well as discussions with experts who understand what care should be provided.

Any time that you have had complications following medical care, please contact a medical malpractice attorney to share your story. In that way you can learn what possible legal options exist and then make a decision about how to proceed.

A new lawsuit alleging improper care during a gynecological treatment has led to a new lawsuit reports The Cayman News.

A woman is claiming that she suffered second and third degree burns following a procedure intended eliminate fibroids and thin the uterine wall. A few years ago the victim agreed to an endometrial ablation because she was experiencing pain in the uterus. During the procedure the doctor uses a wand filled with saline solution heated to 195 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat of the solution is intended to burn off the problematic areas of the uterine lining. Normally a sheath around the wand prevents the very hot liquid from seeping out and causing damage to the patient.

However, in this case, the procedure did not go to plan. The lawsuit claims that the doctor did not exercise proper care when completing the treatment. The medical provider ignored warning signs on the medical equipment and even removed the wand while the burning solution was still being released. The doctor admitted to not reading the manual that came with the machine and blamed the nurses for the harm caused during the problematic procedure. Because of the negligent care, the patient was severely burned during the visit causing extreme disruption for all her family while dealing with the painful blisters.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti are committed to fighting for the rights of victims like the patient in this case. Too often when harmful doctor errors are committed, the reaction is simply to cover up the error or blame others. That type of denial only serves to further injury the victim and prohibits changes from being made that could prevent future mistakes. The best way to ensure that others do not fall victim to the same hospital mistake is to hold the negligent medical professionals accountable for the quality of care they provide.

Vaccination injuries and their legal consequences have long been a complicated and debated area of the law. While millions of lives have been saved by the development of vaccinations over the years, the undeniable truth is that many children suffer lifelong injuries after receiving them. The possible range of childhood injuries continues to grow, as a spate of lawsuits has recently been filed that suggest that a link exists between vaccines and autism. As reported in the New York Times, The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a new case that may ultimately have consequences for all vaccine injury challenges in the future.

The main issue in the upcoming case involves the specific meaning of a 25 year old Congressional law and the legislation’s effect on product liability suits against vaccine manufacturers. The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act attempted to balance the need to compensate those injured by vaccinations while encouraging manufacturers to continue developing safer products. In essence, the law offers clear legal advantages for victims to use an alternative legal process, known as “vaccine court,” to adjudicate their claims.

The problem is that the vaccine court is increasingly seen as unfairly denying many valid claims from injured children and their families. In most cases, the court will deny any claims that allege injuries that do not fall within a rigid table of possible vaccine injuries—autism, for example, is not on the list. Even worse (and at the heart of this case) is the argument that the 1986 Act which created the court also bars those denied families the chance to sue vaccine manufacturers in regular civil court for their conduct.

For example, the parents of one family filed a claim with the vaccine court after their daughter suffered severe problems upon getting a DTP vaccine to guard against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetnus. Their daughter experienced seizures mere hours after receiving the immunization. She is now a teenager, is non-verbal, continues to suffer from seizures, and requires around the clock care. However, their claim was rejected by the vaccine court, because it did not fall into the rigid definitional categories adjudicated by the body.

As an alternative, the family filed a regular state law claim alleging “design defects” in the manufacturing of the vaccine. Specifically, they claim that the company which made the vaccine given to their daughter knew that there was a safer product than the version of DTP that was administered and yet did nothing to produce the safer version. Challengers to the family’s claim, however, believe that the family does not even possess the right to pursue the lawsuit, because that right was taken from them by the 1986 Law that created the vaccine court.

That is exactly the disagreement that the Supreme Court will settle with the upcoming case. The high court heard oral arguments on the issue earlier in the week and will issue a ruling sometime in the next several months.

The particular legal question presented by the specific case involves a variety of nuances including statute interpretation, potential conflict of laws, and public policy considerations. But our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti continually share our belief in the importance of fair and equal access to the court system for all potential victims. We have unwaveringly advocated for allowing the courtroom process of judge and jury to hear all disputes, make a ruling, and provide remedy when necessary. Our medical injury lawyers oppose all measures that seek to take that right away, whether it is arbitrary damage caps or statutory interpretations that give large manufacturers blanket immunity.

With the developing news about the dangerous side effects that many patients experienced who underwent replacement surgery with DePuy hip implants, it is important to understand the concerns that have been brewing over metal-on-metal replacements over the last several years. The New York Times reported earlier this year on the many questions that have existed around these types of devices.

About 1/3 of all hip replacements performed annually use metal-on metal implants. That includes both conventional replacements and the alternative procedure known as resurfacing. Their popularity grew initially because of claims that they would be more durable than previous forms of replacement devices. That means that over 83,000 patients have received this potentially dangerous implant every year.

But problems with the metal-on-metal product are becoming clear.

Studies continue to show that the device can wear down quickly, causing metallic debris to be scattered within and absorbed by patient bodies. The metal release ultimately causes inflammatory reactions leading to bone loss, groin pain, and tissue death at the hip joint. Orthopedic doctors at many hospitals, including several in Chicago, continue to treat a growing number of patients for these types of hip replacement problems.

The cause of the problematic replacements are still being investigated, but experts now agree that the poor design of many of the metal-on-metal devices make the ball of the product press against the socket/cup’s edge. The effect is known as “edge-loading” where a chisel-like process is created that releases the large quantities of small metallic particles, most commonly chromium and cobalt.

One surgeon explained, “It is a sad travesty. It is design-related and technique related.”

Many doctors are drastically reducing their use of metal-on-metal replacement devices. Most notably, DePuy Orthopedics recently recalled thousands of hip replacement implants following the release of developing information that explains just how many patients may have suffered because of the device—many of them still unaware of the problems.

As we have already reported, several DePuy hip recall lawyers have filed a lawsuit on behalf of over a dozen patients who have suffered because of these defective implants. If you have had a hip replacement it is important to check and ensure your device is safe and not part of this recent DePuy implant recall.

Our Chicago product recall lawyers at Levin & Perconti will continue to keep you updated on developments with this medical problem.

American Medical News is reporting on encouraging new developments in the battle to reduce medical errors by doctors and hospitals. Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers have worked for decades to raise awareness of medical mistakes that should have been prevented. By assisting the patient victims and their families, we strive to ensure that the problems receive redress and medical professionals are encouraged to improve the quality of their care by ensuring that their errors are recognized.

Local Illinois doctors are now taking another step which may help to raise awareness of patient safety in another way. The University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago is planning to work on a three-year project to help evaluate whether the center’s medical error model (known as the “seven pillars” approach) is appropriate for other hospitals. Advocates for this type of approach explained that the model has allowed the identification of 56 cases of medical harm with 55 of them settled out of court.

Involved doctors hope that the effort will ultimately improve patient safety in more area locations, sharing, “We want to take what we’ve been doing for the last few years and try to roll it out to nine other hospitals in the Chicago area.”

Specifically, the project will examine the new model’s effect on the overall number and severity of medical errors, the reductions in the errors, and their compensation costs. Within 18 months the project is planned to expand to four local hospitals, but results will not be ready for publication for about two years.

The new project is being funded through a federal grant, but two local doctors involved in the project are adding to the effort with personal funds. Two UIC doctors pledged $100,000 to help share a new documentary that explains the death of a young teen after a preventable medical error. It shares the toll that these errors have on patients and their families.

Please Click Here to read more about this important step in improving medical care at local hospitals.

A new lawsuit has recently been filed in Illinois courts alleging that many medical patients have suffered following defective metal-on-metal hip implants made by DePuy Orthopaedics, reports AboutLawsuits.com.

Thirteen former patients have alleged that ASR hip implants made by the company were defectively designed and had to be replaced. Specifically, the challenged devices include the ASR Acetabular System implants and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System implants. Over 93,000 of these implants were recalled by the company after startling data revealed that one out of eight recipients of the defective DePuy hip implants experience problems within five years of the surgical implant. Many of those victims eventually require a risky hip revision procedure to completely replace the defective DePuy product.

This new lawsuit filed by over a dozens of those victims claim that the company failed to appropriately test the metal-on-metal system, and even after realizing the problem, the company delayed in calling for the full recall. In particular, there were early concerns about problems with the part of the device known as the acetabular cup. The cup on the DePuy device was much shallower than on cups made by other orthopedic companies. The shallowness has consequently been shown to pose more risks for those receiving the implant.

The metal-on-metal his replacement system has been questioned repeatedly in the five years that it has been used. Medical device safety advocates explain that the product can shed metal materials into the body which in turn pose severe risk to soft tissues. The metal particles also pose risk of instigating inflammatory reactions and causing bone loss.

Our Chicago medical product liability lawyers at Levin & Perconti believe that no patient should suffer at the hands of defective and downright dangerous products like this type of hip implant. With the severity of the possible complications, it is vital for you to contact a product liability attorney as soon as possible if you may have been implanted with one of these problematic devices.

The death of an 8-month child last week has sparked a local investigation into Tacoma’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. As reported in The Olympian, this death involved a young daughter swallowing prescription medication. Authorities will are waiting the return of a toxicology test to more conclusively explain the cause of death.

Strangely this was the third young child killed in the area. The week before, a newborn was killed in route to Children’s Hospital after a medical mistake. A hospital staff member erroneously administered medication to the young child without any doctor’s orders. That medication error caused the infant’s death.

Two days after that tragedy, an 8 month old child died at the same hospital following an overdose of calcium chloride. An investigation into that particular accident led to the conclusion that it was an “adverse event,” meaning that the mistake should have been prevented.

As this string of terrible child deaths shows vividly, when dealing with young bodies, medication mistakes often have tragic consequences. The protective systems of the body are yet to be fully developed in these young infants, meaning that inappropriate drugs or inappropriate doses of drugs entering these bodies can wreak much more damage than if given to an adult or even an older child.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti understand these risks all too well. Our legal team has dealt with many instances of medication problems that have had deadly consequences. Our medical malpractice attorneys have also worked frequently on errors involving infants and young children. We work hard to ensure that the legal rights of the families that have been traumatized by these preventable mistakes are protected.

The Toronto Sun reported late last week on a tragic hospital mistake that may have extremely damaging consequences for the patient.

The 65- year old victim visited her doctor in February to receive an annual mammogram. The initial results indicated bad news—two lumps were discovered. A second follow-up mammogram revealed even more troubling results, three more lumps were found. It was at that point, in early April, that she received a biopsy with the results to be sent to her doctor within three weeks.

She had not received any word for four weeks at which point she called her doctor’s office. During the call the medical secretary at first said that she didn’t have the results but then said, “wait, I have it, everything is OK.”

Unfortunately, everything was not OK. In fact, the doctor never did receive the biopsy results. Eventually, over six months after the first mammogram, the victim discovered that her doctor had never gotten the test results in any form.

The delay meant that was that precious time was lost in treating the breast cancer. Her chemotherapy is now just beginning, whereas it would have actually been completed already if the test results had been timely delivered. Consequently, one of the patient’s breast will likely be removed, something that may have been avoided if treatment began earlier. The advancement of the cancer meant that the mastectomy was likely the only available treatment option.

The victimized patient in this case shared some words that our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin and Perconti know all too well. She explained, “They (health professionals) hold our lives in their hands. We trust them the same as we trust the anaesthetist when we have an operation.”

It is that trust that must be respected by all those involved in the medical care process—from the surgeon to the doctor’s office secretarial staff. There is no excuse for paperwork errors that cause severe complications in patient treatment. If you have ever fallen victim to one of these mistakes, contact a medical malpractice lawyer immediately.

Newsweek recently compiled an extended story that analyzes the growing problem of mistakes made by medical professionals that ultimately lead to severe harm to the unfortunate patients in their care.

The news magazine refers to a previous study that explained how almost 100,000 patients in American hospitals die each year from preventable medical errors. Experts who have analyzed that study since have admitted that the figures are likely on the low end, with the true number of killed patients much higher. Unfortunately, the problem is only growing with reports of wrong diagnoses, hospital infections, medication errors, and other mistakes higher than ever.

Steps have recently been taken recently with an eye toward improving patient safety. They include new Medicare and Medicaid regulations that disallow reimbursement for injuries that occur at hospitals which should have been prevented, including bed sores and blood transfusion errors. In addition, twenty eight states now require some form of reporting of hospital acquired infection rates—allowing consumers more information when deciding what facilities are best able to minimize preventable health problems. Those hospitals that continue to show increasing infection rates will ultimately have their Medicaid payments decreased as well.

The online mobilization of injured patients is being credited with helping to spur the changes and improvements in medical care. The communicative reach of the internet is allowing many more patients to share their stories of harmful hospital experiences, raising awareness of the issue that was previously little known. In the same way, we hope that this blog space acts as a means by which stories about medical mistakes are shared in an effort to build momentum around drives to improve medical care.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti are committed to working each day to eliminate medical mistakes. We have assisted victims of these hospitals problems for decades, ensuring that the legal rights of the injured and their families are respected and honored.

The Chicago Tribune published a new story that reports on the troubling standards state regulators use to ensure doctors do not abuse patients. In particular, the newspaper noted the meager oversight and slow investigations that plague the state department’s ability to monitor allegations of sexual misconduct by abusive doctors.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is tasked with investigating complaints filed by patients against their doctors. However, the agency is notoriously slow at actually conducting the investigation and reprimanding doctors found to have engaged in some sort of misconduct. On top of that, once doctors are reprimanded, the agency does little to ensure that the doctor does not reoffend. A key problem is the lack of resources at the department’s disposal. A staff of only 3 people manages over 7,500 licensed individuals in the state who have committed some violation. Another concern is that the maintenance of the records for all of these violations appears to be an unorganized mess.

For example, one downstate doctor was officially disciplined in 1999 for telling a patient that she should have sex with him as part of her therapy. However, it took 8 years for the paperwork regarding his probation to be sorted through.

In another case, a doctor charged with sexually fondling a patient was placed on probation with the caveat that he never treat a female patients without someone else in the office. However, his probation is never actually monitored. He has been visited by a probation officer only once, and the chaperone requirement is enforced only on “the honor system”

It is the business of our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti to fight for the rights of patients who have suffered because of medical misconduct. It is imperative that the state of Illinois department officials also make it their business to ensure that victimized patients are protected. There is no excuse for not following through on punishments and abiding by state regulations when it comes to medical violations. We urge all those who have suffered at the hands of these doctor abuses to contact a medical malpractice lawyer immediately.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti work each day to help the victims of medical errors. We are confident that our work helps ensure that the legal rights of victims are honored and also plays a role in guaranteeing that future medical patients are less likely to be harmed by negligent physicians. That is why we remain disappointed that some doctors who have clearly been shown to pose a threat to all the patients they treat are allowed to continue working, risking the lives of many unknowing individuals who seek their care.

For example, The Chronicle recently reported on one cardiologist with a track record filled with allegations of medical mistakes, medication errors, fraud, and wrongful death. The doctor was most recently found to have overbilled Medicaid by $1.7 million for unneeded arthritis medication. He eventually pled guilty to the fraud and is awaiting sentencing.

However, the Medicaid fraud was only the latest in a string of legal problems for this particular doctor. In at least two other cities, the doctor was found to have run complex pill mills—dispensing drugs with reckless fury to those interested in acquiring much abused pill combinations. Two of those patients eventually died because of the medication error. The families of those victims have filed suit against the dangerous doctor.

One state medical board labeled the doctor “a threat to public welfare.” Another medical expert explained that the doctor was “prescribing potentially lethal medications with blatant disregard for human life.” Yet, amazingly, the doctor is currently still licensed to practice medicine. The state board maintains the power to revoke his license because of the felony conviction. But that step has not been taken.

Please Click Here to learn more about the many facets of this particularly troubling case of repeated medical errors.

In August on this blog we discussed the egregious case of medical fraud and abuse of Dr. Mark G. Midei. The doctor, a former star cardiologist at the St. Joseph Medical Center, was found to have performed hundreds of heart procedures unnecessarily. Medical records were falsified to make it appear that patients had clogged arteries when they did not.

The Baltimore Sun reports that this week saw the filing of over 100 claims in the arbitration hearings with St. Joseph Medical Center stemming from the situation. The victims are claiming that the hospital is responsible for the conspiracy, negligence, and fraud perpetrated by their medical staff. Many involved in the case of Dr. Midei believe that this problem is common at other hospitals throughout the country—investigations at several other facilities are already underway. Another doctor in Louisiana did the same thing just last year, earning him 10 years in federal prison.

The situation is most ripe for abuse with stent replacements. As in this case, doctors can often insert these mesh stents into the healthy veins of unknowing, trusting patients. The patients are then exposed to the risks of the procedure itself, the necessity to take expensive medication with dangerous side-effects, and the emotional anguish that always comes with these health issues.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti remain as appalled as the rest of society about these cases of deception and medical fraud. It is a tragic reality that some in the medical profession continue to place so little value in the health and well-being of the patients that seek their help and counsel. There is no excuse for allowing hundreds of innocent victims and their families undergo the hardship and risk of heart procedures unnecessarily. If you or anyone you know may have suffered any problematic medical care, please contact a medical malpractice attorney immediately.

Please Click Here to read more about this and similar case of medical abuse.

The Seattle PI reported this week and a tragic medical mistake that took the life of a young infant at a local Children’s Hospital.

On September 17th a young infant girl was being transported in the hospital in preparation for a transplant. However, for reasons that staff members still claim not to understand, a hospital employee administered a drug to the infant without doctor permission. The infant died shortly after receiving the medication.

The infant death was only the latest in a string of mistakes at this particular hospital. An adult patient recently fell severely ill after staff members wrongly administered medication. He had entered the facility with life-threatening respiratory distress. An 8-month old girl died at the hospital after inexplicably being given ten times the prescribed does of calcium chloride. On top of that, a year and half ago another patient, an autistic teenage boy, was killed after being given a lethal dose of painkiller by hospital staff. The teenager was prescribed a fentanyl patch which is typically only used for cancer patients or people with narcotics tolerances.

After the string of errors the state Department of Health has launched an investigation into the hospital, reviewing systematic procedures and processes that may have contributed to the medical mistakes.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand the devastation caused when a medical mistake takes the life of a young child. There is simply no amount of compensation that can recover the losses sustained following these tragic incidents. Nonetheless, we have worked for decades to help preserve the legal rights of families following these errors.

A big reason for the need to honor legal rights and obligations is to ensure that the negligent facility takes appropriate steps to prevent the possibility of the harm occurring in the future. As this case demonstrates, often a single facility is responsible for repeated errors—mistakes that literally end lives. If you or someone you know has suffered in a similar way, please contact a medical malpractice lawyer today.

News Oklahoma recently discussed a severe medical care problem that has not received as much attention as it deserves—the shortage of critical medications at many hospitals.

Unknown to most of the public, many hospital are suffering through the worst shortage of critical drugs in many years. The consequences of the shortage are seen most prominently in operating rooms across the country. Specifically, medical professionals are finding that drugs like propofol, forms of epinephrine, and succinylcholine are all in short supply. Each of those drugs is crucial for surgical procedures. Pharmacists, anesthesiologists, and even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admit that the problem is severe and in dire need of correction. The consequences are simply too high to downplay.

For example, the medication shortage leads to patients waking up in the middle of operations and in several cases, directly to patient deaths. The specialized form of epinephrine is especially necessary in cases of cardiac arrest. When a patient suffers the heart problem, it is essentially for medical professionals to have immediate access to the drug in an effort to restart the patient’s heart. However, some have already admitted that patients have died because of the lack of quick usage of the drug.

A recent survey conducted by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices indicate that more than one third of the 1,800 health professionals who responded admitted that the shortage has led to medical errors that have harmed patients. In total about 1,000 medical mistakes were reported as a result of the unavailable of about 50 different drugs.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti are appalled at the loss of life and increased patient suffering caused by lack of proper medication. When patients arrive at a hospitals for emergency medical care, without question they should expect the facility to have access to the life saving drugs and equipment necessary for their survival. Failure in that regard is an egregious medical mistake that cannot be tolerated.

CBS Evening News reported last week on the rise of a frightening new medical threat that is affecting a rising number of patients all across the country. Medical professionals have identified a new class of infection that patients are getting once they are at hospitals for other reasons. The infection is a “superbug” that seems resistant to antibiotics, unable to be treated in any way at all.

The bug is similar to MSRA, the well-known hospital borne infection that plagues many medical facilities. While potentially deadly, MSRA can usually be treated successfully with antibiotics. However the new hospital problem is worse. Specifically, five different superbugs have been identified as plaguing hospitals everywhere. One out of every five infections that intensive care patients get while at the hospital are now of this more resistant variety.

The problem truly cannot be overstated. As one infectious disease doctor explained, “What these organisms have done, by creating super-antibiotic resistance, is that they’ve set medicine back by 70 years in time.”

The bacteria is capable of living on hospital surfaces for years. A recent study found that perhaps half of medical workers—particularly those in surgical centers—fail to take all necessary steps to help control the infections. Those basic techniques include hand washing and proper sterilization.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti are committed to helping all of those patients who have been affected by negligent behavior in hospitals. We understand that certain parts of medical care are never guarantees and that risk is inherently a part of proper care. However, too often medical professionals do not do all that they could do to ensure that the medical environment is bacteria-free. When medical mistakes are made that increase the prevalence of these deadly bugs, many patients will be permanently harmed and sometimes killed because of it. That conduct is unacceptable.

Please Click Here to read more about this growing medical problem.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride has been under fire lately for a vote that he cast in a recent high profile state case. The decision revolved around a challenge to the 2005 state law that placed a cap on the amount of damages that could be received by a victim of medical malpractice.

Justice Kilbride, soon to be the high court’s next Chief Justice, voted earlier this year to invalidate the law as violating the state constitution’s demand of separation of powers. In addition, there was precedential support for the ruling, consider a similar ban had been rejected a few decades before.

In a recent interview with the Peoria Journal Star the justice highlighted the logic behind the decision. He explained that the court did not make the ruling based on personal policy arguments for or against health care premiums and patient need. Instead, as is the specific job of our judges, Kilbride considered the law only in its constitutional dimension

The law had specifically limited the damages that victims could be awarded in certain categories, regardless of the specific facts of the case. That meant that an impartial jury could hear an entire case, understand the arguments, evaluate the evidence, be presented facts about the losses suffered, reach a decision based on that process and then have that decision rejected. As Justice Kilbride made clear, victims of medical malpractice, just like anyone else, deserve a fair hearing in the courtroom. It is an overreach of legislative power to take away that basic access to the court.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti support the logical, fair, constitutionally sound decision reached by the state‘s highest court on this issue. Illinois is stronger because of the logical approach reached by Justice Kilbride and the other members of the high court.

Much recent discussion has involved the risks that new doctors, known as “residents,” pose to the patients in their care. Recent research has shown that medical errors increase when these doctors-in-training begin working at hospitals for the first time. This “July Effect” has now been conclusively shown to cause harm to hospitals patients—particularly when it comes to medication dosage.

In addition to the increased medical mistakes caused by the learning curve, problems also arise when these new doctors are asked to work long hours. For years, a staple of new doctor residency has been the bone-breaking shifts that each are required to work, occasionally 24 hours at a time. These shifts, of course, have led to sleep-deprived doctors and spikes in the medical errors that they commit. Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti have long suggested that there is no excuse for working conditions that compromise patient care. The problem simply must be fixed.

Fortunately, another step has recently been taken to help solve the overworking resident problem. The Associated Press reported this week that the Chicago-based Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education officially announced on Tuesday that new rules have been approved to shorten resident work hours. Those rules had been proposed early in the summer, and now are set to become implemented next July.

Specifically, the new rules will decrease the maximum work shift for first-year residents. They will drop to 16 hours a day from 24 hours. Also, residents will let patients know that they are being supervised by more experienced physicians. The overall weekly hour limit remains unchanged at 800 per week, but “strategic napping” is strongly encouraged.

The CEO of the Council reported that the changes are hoped to improve patient safety and provide a humanistic learning environment for the resident doctors.