Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

After actor John Ritter died in 2003 from an aortic dissection, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against multiple doctors and a hospital. The family settled with the hospital and other people involved for $14 million but sought another $67 million at trial against remaining doctors, alleging that Ritter’s cardiologist misdiagnosed his aortic dissection as a heart attack, consequently mistreating it. Further, the suit alleged that a radiologist failed to perform an x-ray which could have shown the aortic dissection, leading to a missed opportunity for Ritter to receive potentially life-saving surgery. The jury, however, disagreed with his family’s arguments and found in favor of the defendant doctors.

While the Ritter family did not receive the $67 million they asked for, the case still showed the inequities of capping medical malpractice awards. For loss of income, there is normally no cap or a very high one, where as loss of companionship has very low limits. This means that wealthy people, who would have made more in their lifetime, can be awarded larger settlements for the same issues. Often this means that a case on behalf of a decedent who was retired, unemployed, or otherwise not making much money will not be worth filing because of caps on potential awards. Conversely, the same case on behalf of a decedent who was making a large amount of money will be worth filing because the award may be greater since loss of income will have a high cap, if one at all. For example, Ritter’s family could have been awarded a large amount because he had huge earning potential, whereas an unemployed person who died in the same manner would not have been able to receive nearly as large an award because their earning potential was so much smaller.

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A study in the May issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery shows that the rate of limb amputation is higher in Chicago’s black communities than in suburban white communities. The data showed that blacks in Chicago are five times more likely to have a limb amputated than suburban whites. Notably, many amputations are preventable. Limb amputations can often be the product of low quality health care and doctor errors, poor access to health care resources, and a doctor's failure to give information about procedures and treatments. One of the more common causes of amputations is untreated pressure sores that may result from diabetes and heart disease.

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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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In a recent medical malpractice lawsuit, a birth injury that was allegedly caused by a nurse-doctor communication breakdown yielded a $1.2 million settlement. Nurses were concerned that the birth was taking too long, but were hesitant to consult the doctor about these fears due to his reputation of angry responses to perceived criticism. The infant developed cerebral palsy.

Physicians too commonly react harshly to instances where they feel bothered by the nursing staff, such as late-night clarification requests, difficulties with procedures, changes in patient condition and more. The negative consequences of verbal abuse or disruption in hospitals are significant; reduced communication, team collaboration, information transfer and concentration are all reported as responses to disruptive behavior. Patient safety is compromised in many ways by these reported breakdowns. Medical errors increase in disruptive or abusive situations and the quality of care decreases. Patient mortality increases with these outbursts. Medication errors have also been caused by verbally abusive hospital staff relations.

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The trial of a wrongful death lawsuit brought against a cardiologist and his team began recently. The plaintiff, the 91 year old father of the 65 year-old victim, sued the doctors, alleging medical malpractice during their care of his son in January 2005. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleges that the doctor failed to get an angiograph done in a timely manner despite repeated medical indications that it was needed immediately. The victim was sent to the cardiologist in December of 2004 after experiencing symptoms of a heart attack. By the time the doctor looked at the patient, it was too late because much of the victim’s heart muscle had been permanently damaged.

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A medical malpractice lawsuit was recently settled for over $1.5 million on behalf of the family of a 37-year-old Illinois man who died of a heart problem resulting from the negligence of his doctor. The man died only days before a follow-up appointment was scheduled with his doctor. Unfortunately, during previous visits the doctor failed to perform the necessary tests to monitor the health of the man, who suffered from cardiac sarcoidosis. The tests the doctor should have performed include a Holter monitor test, an echocardiogram and a Thallium stress test. The doctor also failed to properly treat the patient, by neglecting to install an implantable defibrillator to regulate the man's heart rhythm.

Scott Clewis of Levin & Perconti recently filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a doctor and Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois for the wrongful death of a patient. The complaint alleges that the victim's doctor negligently failed to diagnose her cardiomyapathy. He failed to take an adequate medical history, failed to suspect a cardiac condition as a cause of the woman's symptoms and perform appropriate testing and order appropriate medication. The victim's condition of cardiomyopathy went undiagnosed and untreated and ultimately resulted in her death.

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A jury found that the negligence of a pediatrician and two physician assistants resulted in the death of a one year old. The child died of cardiac failure and severe myocarditis, a disorder that is usually caused by viral infections. The doctor and physician assistants failed to perform a complete evaluation of the child and failed to respond properly to the child’s symptoms upon admittance. The plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorney was quoted as stating that a majority of the jurors saw this case as warranting a $5 to $7 million reward case, but one juror was out of touch.

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A jury awarded the family of a man nearly $2 million in damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit for negligent treatment in failure to diagnose a cardiac condition. The man went to the E.R. for treatment of chest pain and numbness in October 2003. A doctor mis-diagnosed him as having a gastroesophageal problem and reassured the man that he had a healthy heart. Again, the hospital acted negligently when the man’s wife called the hospital in November 2003. The man was experiencing similar pains to those he experienced the previous month and the E.R. nurses who answered the call did not tell the woman to bring her husband into the E.R. He died later that day in a death that may have been prevented if the hospital would have properly diagnosed his cardiac condition.

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A 49 year-old woman entered a Waukegan hospital complaining of typical heart attack symptoms: nausea, shortness of breath, and chest pain. A triage nurse saw the woman fifteen minutes after arrival, classifying her condition as “semi-emergent.”

Twice over the next excruciating two hours, the woman’s daughter asked nurses when her mother would be admitted to see a physician. When her name was eventually called, a nurse found the woman slumped in a waiting room chair without a pulse. Shortly thereafter, she was pronounced dead.

The coroner’s jury concluded that the 49 year-old woman died of a heart attack but also indicated that the death was a result of negligent medical malpractice: gross deviations from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in this situation.

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