Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

Diagnostic errors are some of the costliest that a medical provider can make. Proper treatment to help a patient will not even begin until doctors correctly identify the specific ailment that is harming the patient. However, our Illinois medical malpractice lawyers know that failures to properly identify the problem occur frequently, with life and death consequences for those involved.

There are often misunderstandings about what constitutes malpractice in these sorts of situations. As with all malpractice, the law does not hinge on specific outcomes. In other words, doctors are not required by the law to do anything above and beyond basic reasonable care to figure out what the cause of an ailment is. If a doctor fails to diagnose a patient correctly, it does not automatically mean that they committed malpractice. Instead, the legal decision is based on more subtle factors, a comparison of the actions by the doctor with the actions of a “reasonable” doctor in the same situation.

For example, if a patient enters an emergency room with various symptoms, there are basic protocols that reasonable medical practitioners would follow to figure out the patient’s medical issue. That may involve performing tests and comparing symptoms with results to reach reasonable conclusions about what might be harming the patient. Not all diagnostic cases are easy or lead to clear answers. Doctors are not required to do anything more than a reasonable doctor would do. Yet, they can be held responsible when they do not catch issues that a reasonable doctor would catch.

A recent medical malpractice lawsuit ended which illustrates this sort of issue. According to the Coloradoan, a woman went into a local emergency room after experiencing severe headaches. She also had extremely high blood pressure. However, according to the lawsuit, the emergency room doctor did not act reasonably when diagnosing the woman. Instead of putting the information in front of him together which indicated that she might have a more serious issue, the doctor instead diagnosed her with a migraine and sent her home.

The consequences of being sent home without more appropriate treatment would had severe consequence for the mother of two.

By the next morning she had suffered a stroke. She woke up and had to be rushed to the hospital again after being unable to walk or talk. Her family was not sure if she would survive the ordeal at first. She did, but not without permanent injury. She is virtually paralyzed on the entire right side of her body. The woman can no longer perform activities that she once loved, like cycling and skiing. She even has to learn how to write with her left hand, because she unable to use her right.

Each Chicago medical malpractice lawyer appreciates that cases like this are often caused by medical malpractice. The jury in this case agreed that the emergency room physician did not act reasonably. They found that his failure to properly diagnose the woman was caused by unreasonable conduct and led to her permanent injuries. They ultimately awarded the family $3.9 million for the misconduct.

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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.

The children of a retired police lieutenant believe that there father was a victim of medical error after he was rushed to the emergency room. Fox40 stated that the children believe that the doctor abandoned his efforts to resuscitate the police officer and then surreptitiously removed the victims watch and put it in his pocket. According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, two witnesses noticed that the watch went missing from the victim’s wrist and then saw a bulge in the doctor’s pocket. Despite efforts from security, the doctor was able to leave the hospital with the patient’s wristwatch. The family’s greatest fear is that the doctor allowed the wrongful death. The doctor was released from the hospital after the medical error. To read more about the medical malpractice, please click the link.

A grand jury investigation has begun in the death of a woman who was found on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room. The woman was rushed by ambulance to the ER when diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis. The woman was found dead on the floor of the emergency room while waiting 24 hours to be treated. While waiting for treatment she suffered from a blood clot and died. Hospital staff appeared to ignore the patient while in the ER which was caught on the ER’s security camera. The hospital has been fondly referred to as “Killer Hospital.” The grand jury will investigate the hospital’s negligence and malpractice.

Read more about Killer Hospital and its alleged medical negligence here.

According to an article, “after several (medical) mistakes, miscommunications, and misdiagnoses,” a woman ended up having both arms and legs amputated and since then filed a medical malpractice suit against her doctors. The woman who had a history of kidney stones went to the emergency room with kidney stone pain. Instead of treating the kidney stone, the stone turned into an infection that led to septic shock. This septic shock turned her limbs black from loss of blood circulation. All limbs had to be amputated due to this medical malpractice oversight, according to the article.

Read more about the medical malpractice suit here.

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

According to federal officials, The University of Chicago Medical Center has violated the federal law of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act by not following emergency room procedure. The Chicago hospital failed to provide a medical screening to a 78 year old man who died last month in their emergency room. The alleged violation could lead to loss of federal funding from the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly. The Joint Commission, which is given the power to accredit hospitals, is also going to investigate the alleged violation. The Illinois hospital said it has the correct policies and procedures in place and will take disciplinary action against its staff employees who may not have followed protocol.

Read more about the alleged hospital violation here.

According to the Crain’s Chicago, the University of Chicago Medical Center is under fire again, this time for the death of an elderly man who passed away on February 3 in the hospital’s emergency room. The article did not give specific details about this possible case of medical malpractice.

A spokesperson for the hospital acknowledged that the hospital may not have followed proper care procedures, “Our investigation found that proper policies and procedures were in place but staff members may not have followed the protocol. Appropriate disciplinary actions are being taken.” Recently, the University of Chicago Medical Center has come under criticism after announcing plans to redirect emergency room patients to different hospitals in a measure to decrease wait times.

Read the full article about the University of Chicago Medical Center.

A hospital’s misdiagnosis a boy’s cancer led to his death according to his family’s complaint filed against the hospital. The hospital originally diagnosed the son with bacterial meningitis and released him. The condition later was determined to be an aggressive form of anaplastic central nervous system T-cell lymphoma cancer that killed the boy. Two of the four patients that received the boy’s organs have died from the cancer. The lawsuit also claims doctor negligence.

Read more about the hospital’s misdiagnosis lawsuit here.

A hospital was fined $25,000 for a surgical error in 2007 when a doctor left a sponge in a patient's body after emergency surgery. According to the article, the surgical error was “likely to cause serious injury or death” to the patient. This error took a second surgery to correct. Apparently it was the job of the nurse and scrub technician to count the number of sponges removed from the patient during the first surgery, but due to the overly bloody nature of this particular surgery, a sponge could have been miscounted.

Read more about the surgical error here.

A mom lost her limbs during a horrific hospital stay is making great progress in using her artificial legs. The woman lost all four limbs and much of her eyesight to medical malpractice at a hospital. She was sent home from the emergency room with only painkillers for a kidney stone. When the condition worsened, medics failed to take her back to the hospital, causing her to develop sepsis. She awoke from a two week coma partially blind with gangrene ravaging her body. The woman is suing both the hospital and emergency service for medical malpractice. To read the full story, click here.

Medical professionals have a tendency to speak in abbreviations. In such a busy, hectic setting such as an emergency room or a doctor’s office, abbreviations shorten time. However, some patients do not follow and are left in the dust. Here is a website where you can enter the abbreviation and then the search engine provides the definition.

Abbreviations can lead to medical malpractice when a handwritten abbreviation is misinterpreted as meaning something different than what the physician intended. In fact, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has issued a “do-not-use” list because of their probability of misinterpretation, leading to dosing errors and serious medical malpractice.

For the website.

Researchers received $3.7 million to find ways to reduce medical error in various hospital and pharmacy departments. Researchers will try to develop safe ways in handling patient test results because receiving results are more difficult in larger hospital institutions. Also, the researchers will try and find safer ambulatory sedations. Another goal is to reduce medication error from high-risk medications.

For the full story, click here.

An annual report issued by the American College of Emergency Physicians gave the nation a D- grade for access to emergency care. The report stated that ER care is fraught with significant challenges and under more stress than ever before. A shortage of doctors and nurses with an increased demand for urgency care creates disaster and threats of medical malpractice.

For the full article.

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

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

For the full article.

Appendicitis is one of the most common surgical diagnosis’s made in the Emergency Room. However, failure to diagnose acute appendicitis is among the five leading causes of successful ER suits. A study found that as many as 30% of patients with acute appendicitis have been seen previously and were incorrectly diagnosed by a prior physician. A large number of appendicitis cases do not have a temperature, right lower abdominal pain or other findings. Missed or delayed diagnosis of acute appendicitis results in higher perforation or peritonitis cases with higher complication rates, such as death, recurrent small bowel obstruction due to adhesions, impaired fertility in women, and prolonged hospitalizations. These problems occur in Emergency Rooms all over the country, including Chicago. To read the full story, click here.

A security camera video shows the shocking reality of a woman's preventable hospital death when she is left to die after falling. The video shows that the woman fell from waiting area chairs and was neglected for nearly an hour before any hospital staff attended to her needs. The video even shows hospital staff watching her suffer and not taking any action. This graphic example shows the dangers of unattentive emergency rooms and medical malpractice deaths.

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

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

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

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

A study of doctor response time in emergency situations published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a strong correlation between delayed time to defibrillation after in-hospital cardiac arrest and a patient’s likelihood of survival. The study lasted five years and covered nearly 15% of the large hospitals in the country. The factors the study identified as highly correlated with response time were hospital size and admitting diagnosis. Small hospitals tended to have quicker response time while patients admitted with non-cardiac diagnoses experienced a higher response time following cardiac arrest.

Surprisingly, however, the study also found a strong correlation between race and response time. In fact, African-Americans and Native Americans experienced nearly 25% greater response times when undergoing cardiac arrest. 25% is extremely significant when considering that only 30% of patients underwent defibrillation after two minutes. However, any time beyond two minutes exceeds the guidelines-based recommendations. This speaks to major problems in hospital response time where nearly 1/3 of responses exceed widely-accepted recommendations.

The significance of this delayed response time? When defibrillation was delayed, patients only had a 22% chance of survival while reasonable response time resulted in a nearly 40% survival rate. Furthermore, the study’s numbers were skewed in favor of successful hospitals as the study was voluntary. One of the study’s authors even noted that this likely resulted in responses from only generally quality care facilities.

Following this study, physicians should realize seconds do make a difference. Many of us have images of doctors on television yelling “Code Blue” and running to revive their patients. In reality, unfortunately, physicians are not always as quick to the punch. In hospitals where such delays are a recurring event, the lack of an adequate response is nothing short of negligent.

For the full study, click 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.