Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

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.

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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.

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An Illinois man was awarded nearly $24 million in an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit verdict. The man, now 34, entered an Illinois hospital in 2001 to have a kidney stone remove. While there, he suffered cardiac arrest, which interrupted the flow of oxygen to his brain. The injury put him in a wheelchair, took away his fine motor skills and caused spastic movements, severe double vision and slurred speech.

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A lawsuit has been filed against a county medical examiner, paramedics, and county Emergency Medical Services after a man who was declared dead at the scene of an automobile accident but was found to be alive hours later sustained permanent injuries. Paramedics responded to calls after the car accident but negligently failed to check the man's vital signs properly not noticing his faintly beating heart. The paramedics made a further medical mistake when they failed to use monitors to check the status of the victim and when they failed to make resuscitation efforts even though it is mandated by policy. The medical examiner is being accused of medical malpractice in that he disregarded signs that the man was still alive, such as eye twitching and chest movements, for hours after the accident. The medical examiner has claimed that it was not his job to determine whether the victim was alive or dead. The man suffered a severe head injury along with a broken leg and other injuries. Now five months after the accident, the victim is just learning how to speak again. He might never fully recover as he would have if treated properly. The man's mother witnessed the accident and suffered severe trauma and distress when she was told that her son was dead.

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The mother of a 22-year-old victim of medical malpractice has recently sponsored a new law requiring doctors to make past medical malpractice settlements and verdicts against them public. The mother claims that her son was given an unnecessary surgery causing a brain injury that made him partly-paralyzed, half-blind and psychotic after his brain was jostled by the neurosurgeon. The surgeon claimed that the patient would make a full recovery after rehab but his injuries ultimately resulted in his death. When the patient's mother learned that the surgeon had done the procedure only once before and had a malpractice settlement and claims in another state, she decided to take action. The law stipulates that only settlements or final judgments will be publicized on the internet database. The Colorado bill was passed into law in early January 2008.

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A $14 million medical malpractice verdict in favor of a boy who was brain damaged during birth has been tossed by a New York appellate court based on the defense's allegations that the jury was unfairly influenced by both the plaintiffs and the judge. The defense claimed that the judge clearly favored the plaintiffs and that she also acted inappropriately when she gave gifts to the brain damaged boy and the jurors during the holidays. The jury's verdict was announced at a much smaller figure but after the trial two jurors told the plaintiff's attorney that they had intended that amount to be annual. After hearing the plaintiff's side, the judge amended the award to $14 million. This settlement was thrown out and a new trial will be held because during the time after the initial verdict, the plaintiffs' attorney communicated with jurors outside of the courtroom. The attorney's actions could be considered professional malpractice.

A jury recently awarded a couple $3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The jury found a physician’s assistant to be negligent in their treatment of the victim. The 61 year-old woman sought treatment for severe headaches and was treated by the physician’s assistant. The physician’s assistant prescribed pain medication without antibiotics. The infection progressed into the 61 year-old’s brain causing a severe abscess. She can no longer work as a real estate agent and has several neurological problems because of the medical malpractice.

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The widower of Arlene Miller would like to file a wrongful death and medical malpractice claim for what happened to his wife, but he cannot find a lawyer who will take his case. Although he has collected all of his wife’s medical records and has done considerable research himself, but he has been told that it simply isn’t “economically feasible to pursue” the claim. In 2003, Texas legislators reformed state laws and capped non-economic damages for malpractice suits at $250,000. Jay Harvey, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, says that, because of the high costs of litigation, this recovery cap tends denies justice to the very old and the very young and simply does not make sense. “It’s the only area of law that we have an arbitrary cap for fair compensation. It shows a lack of trust in the jury system. We will trust a jury to decide if someone will die from lethal injection, but not grant fair compensation.”

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Continue reading "Tort recovery limits deny justice to former Ms. Comiskey Park" »

A medical malpractice lawsuit involving a botched delivery resulting in brain damage to the newborn has been brought in front of a Cook County, Illinois judge. This lawsuit is significant in the state of Illinois. The baby's attorney is claiming that the caps placed on medical malpractice lawsuits for pain and suffering ($500,000 for doctors, $1,000,000 for hospitals) are not sufficient in a case such as this one. The law imposing caps on pain and suffering awards was signed into law two years ago. The law was in response to increasing medical malpractice insurance rates for doctors. Although the solution was based on the caps, insurance rates have been stabilizing or falling even though most cases affected by the law have not yet reached a verdict or settlement. This case will face a long appeals process regardless of the ruling in the Cook County court. The baby's lawyers will aim to prove the unconstitutionality of this law by proving that in an instance like this, when a child is unnecessarily and permanently brain damaged due to a preventable medical mistake, the caps do not offer fair compensation.

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The mother of a 26-year-old man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctor and others she alleges prescribed overdoses of medication to speed up his death. The claim alleges that the doctor prescribed overdoses of morphine and Ativan and injected a topical antiseptic into the man's stomach. As a result of the alleged medical malpractice, the man had suffered irreversible brain damage and was put on a respirator. When his mother gave approval to donate his organs, the California Transplant Donor Network sent a surgical team to handle the transplant. In California, however, it is illegal for transplant doctors to treat potential organ donors before they are declared dead. The doctor is charged with felony counts of dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and unlawful prescription of a controlled substance.

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The families of three elderly women have ordered medical records from University of Chicago Hospitals, commonly the first step taken in filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. The two women who died and the woman that remains in a coma were all being cared for in the same wing. Their deaths and the coma may all be caused by insulin overdoses. One of the women, who entered the hospital with a urinary tract infection, showed that her insulin level was hundreds of times higher than normal at the time of death, while hospital records revealed that the woman was never officially given insulin. Another woman, who was suffering from pressure ulcers and wound infections, died after being admitted to the hospital. Police continue to investigate her case. The third woman was admitted for a brain aneurysm and now suffers from a brain injury and remains in a coma after displaying unusually high levels of insulin as well. Chicago police continue to investigate and the families move closer to filing suit.

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Two days after winning a personal injury lawsuit against the Illinois hospital whose medical malpractice caused her son brain damage, a registered nurse who worked in a facility owned by that hospital was suspended. Less than a year later, the nurse was terminated under conditions which would make it nearly impossible for her to find other work as a nurse. The lawsuit alleges that the hospital terminated the nurse in retaliation so that other nurses and employees would be deterred from trying to sue the hospital in the future.

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A recent report regarding medical malpractice in Pennsylvania, focusing on surgical errors, was recently released by the Patient Safety Authority. 175 errors were made in the state during the past two and a half years, not including 253 close calls. These errors can lead to serious physical and financial strain, or even wrongful death. "Wrong-site" surgeries are a persistent problem and are clearly avoidable. Pennsylvania is a leader in public accountability for medical and surgical errors. In an effort to reduce the costs of health care, the Governor proposed that the state should cease to pay for care involving hospital-acquired infections, wrong-site surgeries, and other instances of medical malpractice. It is also the only state that requires hospitals to report near-misses.

The report cited wrong-site surgeries including the removal of a patient's healthy thyroid and incorrect cancer diagnosis as the result of a laboratory mix-up, an incorrect incision on the wrong side of a brain injury patient's head, and a surgeon inserting a needle into a patient's right knee when the surgery was planned for the other leg. In 83 reported cases of wrong-site surgeries in the state, the procedure was completed before the mistake was detected.

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The parents of a child with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy is suing the hospital for medical malpractice. The birth injury lawsuit alleges that the hospital failed to properly monitor for signs of fetal distress during delivery. Doctors had given the mother pitocin to induce labor. During delivery, fetal heatrate dropped into the 100s, a dangerously low level, for 80 seconds. The hospital continued to administer pitocin for the next hour and a half. According to the medical malpractice suit, the baby was born "blue, not breathing, had no heartbeat, and had a scalp hematoma with a laceration." Because of the lack of oxygen to the brain during delivery, the child now suffers from cerebral palsy.

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An Illinois law firm recently settled a $9 million personal injury lawsuit against a Chicago medical provider for a child who suffers from a permanent brain injury as a result of medical malpractice during delivery. The birth injury was sustained after a 7-11 minute delay in delivering the child by a necessary emergent c-section.

Victims of medical malpractice are mobilizing to help prevent medical errors and promote patient safety. Sorrel King created the Josie King Foundation to fund safety initiatives at hospitals in honor of her 18-month-old daughter who died after a series of medical mistakes. She also donated some of the financial settlement to the hospital where the errors occurred in order to start a children’s safety program. King launched a new web site, josieking.org, with advice and information for patients and the medical community on how to increase patient safety and what to do if medical errors do occur.

Continue reading "Patients and families affected by medical errors organize a grass-roots movement" »

A Chicago family was awarded $14 million in a recent birth injury settlement. A boy suffered a severe brain injury during birth as a result of medical malpractice and negligence. The hospital staff members confused his heart rate and his mother’s pulse, and the baby was born not breathing. The emergency staff was not prepared for resuscitation as a result of the monitoring error. The obstetrician and nurse did not realize that the baby was in fetal distress and the seven minute lapse without oxygen resulted in cerebral palsy, leaving his arms and legs paralyzed. The judge approved the settlement, allowing the family to be able to provide for the boy for the rest of his life.

Click here for the Chicago Tribune article.