Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

All too often the public does not hear about the detrimental effects tort reform has on the hundreds of thousands of victims whom are injured by medical malpractice each year. Tort reform puts a cap on compensation for victims of medical negligence. The Huffington Post points out the specific case of Lisa Gurley. A court found that the severe brain injury suffered at birth by Lisa’s son, Colin, was caused by a doctor’s negligence. Despite this finding, Nebraska tort reform prevented Lisa and her son from being adequately compensated for his injuries. In fact, they were compensated for just a tiny fraction of what it will cost to care for Colin for the remainder of his life. Now, Medicaid and the Nebraska Medically Handicap Children's program pay for all of Colin’s care. It is grossly unfair that the taxpayers and Colin’s family are paying the astronomical cost of caring for a severely handicapped child while the doctor and the insurance company paid minimally for the medical negligence. The Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin and Perconti are working to protect the rights of catastrophically injured children like Colin and to ensure that there continue to be adequate remedies for injured victims of medical negligence.

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 woman and her fiancé filed a federal medical malpractice lawsuit against two hospitals. They allege that they were ignored in a hospital emergency room so long that they returned home where the woman gave birth to a premature baby. The baby then died. The victims allege that their federal right to emergency medical treatment was violated. They seek unspecified damages for emotional distress. The two did not have medical insurance. There are current investigations as to whether the couple was ignored after the woman entered the hospital with severe abdominal pain. Federal law requires that most hospitals provide emergency attention to patients whether or not they have insurance. To ignore such a patient is medical malpractice. After visiting to two hospitals the couple went home. The mother gave birth to a breach baby and the 1-pound, 6 ounce baby girl was pronounced dead at the scene. This type of medical error goes hand in hand with health care reform. To read more about the birth injury, please click the link.

A woman is suing a Hospital claiming she was the victim of medical malpractice three years ago at the hands of a nurse during child birth. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleges that the woman was given Pitocin, a drug used to induce or augment labor, without orders from a physician. The drug allegedly caused the victim to have rapid contractions that slowed the baby’s heart rate, prompting an emergency C-section. The medical malpractice claim states that the hospital is responsible for the woman’s permanent injuries and damages, pain and suffering, disability, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life. She looks for damages as well as compensation for past and future medical expenses related to the medical error. To learn more about the birthing error, please click the link.

A woman went to a hospital expecting a normal vaginal delivery. However after 10 hours of labor she needed a cesarean section and began bleeding internally after her uterine arteries were torn or cut during the surgery. According to her medical malpractice lawsuit she bled to death after the attending physician and obstetrician argued as to how to treat her. They could not determine whether the victim was bleeding internally and whether they should reopen her abdominal incision to evaluate. The victim had lost more than 3 quarts of blood during the surgery which accounted for 60 percent of the total blood volume in her body. The medical malpractice lawsuit claims that the doctors and hospital botched what should have been done in a routine birth. When the victim entered the hospital she was healthy and had a problem-free, full-term pregnancy. The doctor’s were quoted in an affidavit stating that there was understaffing in the surgical care unit. Both the hospital and doctors deny any medical malpractice. To read more about the mother’s death, please click the link.

A birth injury is when the direct cause of a baby’s medical complications is directly caused by the delivery procedure. Birth injuries are often the fault of medical malpractice. If during the delivery the procedure involved substandard or less than adequate medical care a person may have a claim for medical malpractice. If this sounds like your case, contact a medical malpractice attorney in your area.

Read more about medical malpractice birth injury claims here.

A jury recently awarded $2 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit to the family of a woman who died after being given medication following the delivery of her baby. The jury determined that the doctor was negligent in giving medication to the new mother.

For the full article.

American Association for Justice is hosting a seminar on medical malpractice lawsuits this weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. The seminar will provide an in-depth understanding of medical negligence issues and trial strategies.

For more information.

The American Association for Justice (AAJ) will host a medical negligence lawsuit seminar from January 30-31, 2009 in Phoenix, AZ. The seminar will cover a wide variety of medical malpractice lawsuits, including birth injury lawsuits.

To sign up and for more information, click here.

A jury awarded $20 million medical malpractice settlement finding that a boy’s lasting medical problems caused by mistakes made at his birth. Jurors deliberated for about four hours before deciding that both the doctor and the hospital were negligent in their treatment of the mother who was giving birth to the baby boy. The jury assigned 60 percent of the negligence to the doctor and 40 percent to the hospital. The day the baby was born, the mother called her doctor because she believed there may be something wrong with her unborn child. The doctor, who was not her primary obstetrician, told her to go to the medical center. After the mother arrived, she was hooked up to a fetal monitoring system, which indicated the baby was in distress. The nurses called the obstetrician who gave the mother advice, but he did not arrive for two hours. In that time, the baby got very little oxygen. The doctor’s decision to attempt to induce labor worsened the situation. By the time the baby was delivered by Cesarean-section about four hours after the mother arrived at the medical center, irreparable damage had been done. The child has cerebral palsy, no use of his hands, is almost completely blind and is mentally retarded. The child is now 7 years old and functions at the level of a 6-to-9 month old. His parents will receive $2 million of the award for health care expenses and related costs. He was additionally given $18.5 million for lost earning capacity, pain and suffering and medical expenses. The family stated that the majority of the money will be used for the 24-hour care he needs for the rest of his life. To read the full story, click here.

A west Chicago suburban woman whose son was born with severe brain damage has agreed to a $5.5 million settlement with the doctors and hospital after they caused a lifetime of problems for her son. The mother of the boy agreed to a settlement with the hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois and the two doctors. After the mother was admitted to the hospital and given a drug to induce contractions, her baby’s heart rate started to drop. She argues that an obstetrician should have been called in, but instead the family doctor tried to deliver the baby using a vacuum retractor. When the vacuum retractor didn’t work, he tried using forceps which became lodged in the mother’s uterine wall. The baby boy, who ended up being delivered by C-section by another doctor had been deprived of oxygen long enough to cause brain damage. The young boy is now 6 and is unable to walk, talk, feed himself or sit on his own. A Cook County jury found only the first doctor liable for the young boy’s injuries but the hospital and the second doctor will also have to contribute to the damages. To read the full story, click here.

University of Connecticut studies show that there may be a relationship between cesarean delivery rates and medical malpractice rates. Normal vaginal delivery is considered safer than a cesarean delivery for both mother and baby if the birth is uncomplicated, however cesarean deliveries are recommended for any complications. The rising number of cesarean deliveries may have caused the mean premiums for medical malpractice insurance for obstetricians to increase from less than $80,000 for an individual physician to more than $120,000. Many medical malpractice lawsuits come when a baby is not born using the cesarean delivery and has poor fetal outcome. Doctors argue that these deliveries are risky for the mother of the child, and the decision to perform a cesarean is a great one. Nationwide, cesarean deliveries account for 30.2 percent of all deliveries in 2005, compared to 20.7 percent in 1996. To read the full story, click here.

An Illinois Medical malpractice lawsuit filed seven years ago has finally ended with a million dollar medical malpractice settlement. The large medical malpractice settlement did not come without sacrifice. Illinois medical malpractice plaintiff, Vanessa Jenkins, brought a lawsuit against an Illinois hospital after her son was delivered with a birth defect. Her son sustained brain injuries and other personal injuries as a result of the hospital’s negligent misconduct. The negligent doctor who used a vacuum extractor during delivery of the child caused the child to suffer from serious personal injuries including brain injuries, mental retardation and cerebral palsy. To reach more about this record setting medical malpractice settlement look at on Point Medical Litigation articles or click here to read an article.

The Third District Appellate Court in Illinois ruled that a wronged woman could recover from a negligent physician even though she had previously been awarded damages in a suit against the hospital. The woman’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress against the physician was validated by the court, especially given the extreme negligence displayed by the physician. The woman’s infant son died during child birth after a premature delivery. Her physician was not present at the hospital at the time of the delivery and do no other doctor was present to assist in the delivery. As a result, the woman sat with her baby in a partially-delivered position for over one hour until her physician arrived and completed delivering the baby, who was deceased by this time. A jury awarded the woman damages based on negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

For the full decision, click here:

Vanessa Jenkins gave birth to her son, Cody Smithey, in 2001 at Valley West Community Hospital. Jenkins, who is from Aurora, Illinois, was allegedly having an uneventful labor until Dr. Martin Brauwelier repeatedly used a vacuum extractor device, using it 18 times within 50 minutes, unsuccessfully. At that point an emergency Caesarean section was performed by a different doctor because the baby’s fetal heart rate displayed signs of distress, at least that is what Jenkins’ lawsuit alleged. After Cody suffered brain damage and ended up with cerebral palsy and mental retardation, Jenkins filed suit claiming his birth injuries resulted from medical negligence. The medical malpractice suit, filed six years ago against the Illinois hospital, its staff, and the doctor, settled Tuesday for $15.35 million.

Read more here.

An Aurora woman has announced her $15.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit. Her son sustained a brain injury at birth when she went to Valley West Community Hospital to deliver her son. This is the largest medical malpractice settlement in DeKalb county ever announced.

See 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.

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that about 1 in 15 children are harmed each year by medication dosing errors at hospitals. The study revealed that children are harmed by dosing errors and incorrect medication substantially more often than previously thought. The study also revealed that some of these dosing errors and patient injuries could be prevented easily.

Medication dosing errors in children are the central issue in popular actor Dennis Quaid’s lawsuit in Chicago against Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter Healthcare. Quaid is suing Baxter, a large pharmaceutical manufacturer, after Quaid’s baby twins received a Heparin overdose. The medical malpractice lawsuit is pending before Judge Quinn in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

The full text of the Pediatrics study is available here.

A jury recently awarded a woman and her son $19 million as a result of a birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit against her obstetrician. The son was born with celebral palsy and cortical blindness. After verdict, the mother said “No amount of money will make up for what happened to my son.”

For the full article.

In 1990, a doctor delivered a baby with a permanently disabled arm. The parents filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor and hospital. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that the hospital negligently gave staff privileges to a doctor who had been sued repeatedly and lacked proper malpractice insurance. Just last Wednesday, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine temporarily suspended this doctor’s license.

This temporary suspension finally occurs after many incidents of medical malpractice and still is only temporary. Doctors must be held accountable in a more timely fashion before more people fall victim to medical malpractice.

For the full article.