January 15, 2010

Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Settles for $7.5 Million

According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, an Illinois man lost his wife to medical negligence after she suffered a perforated bowel. The retired police office and his sons settled a wrongful-death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Chicago and two other entities. The $7.5 million settlement with the hospital set a Cook County record for a settlement in a wrongful death of an adult without minor children.

The victim was chairperson of ten community mental health advisory boards in Chicago. She was diagnosed with stage three endometrial cancers and began radiation therapy at the Chicago hospital. There, she was over-radiated, causing a perforated bowel and a bacterial infection in her blood. This medical mistake ultimately caused her wrongful death. According to the family's medical malpractice lawyer, the victim received and overdose in radiation. To read about the landmark Chicago medical malpractice , settlement please click the link.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury, Illinois Accident, Medical Malpractice Attorneys, Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

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December 30, 2009

Radiation Overdoses Affected over 270 Patients

The FDA is currently in the process of investigating a series of medical cases in which over 270 patients were exposes to excess amounts of radiation. This occurred when the victim were undergoing CT brain perfusion scans. In October officials realized that patients in Los Angeles were exposed to 8 times the normal amount of radiation used in conducting these computed tomography scans. A 59-year-old woman reported having a bald strip on her head a few weeks after receiving a CT scan. She released through her medical records that she had been exposed to a higher degree of radiation than normal. High radiation can lead to hear loss and skin redness. The FDA will continue investigating the cause of the medical error with state and local health authorities. Radiation error is a common form of medical malpractice. To learn more about the radiation error, please click the link.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury

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October 15, 2009

Four Patients Say they were not Informed of Radiation Overdose

The hospital that recently disclosed they had been giving overdoses of radiation told the Los Angeles Times that they had contacted all those affected by the medical error. However, some four people claim that they were only asked about hair loss and not told of the mistake or its potential cancer risk. The patients claimed that doctors neither acknowledged any medical error nor explained that the patients had been exposed to eight times more radiation than necessary. One victim had lost clumps of hair in the shower, leaving him bald from the tops of his ears to his neck. He told the doctor that his hair had grown back and that was the end of the conversation. The hospital has said the overdoses stemmed from an error made when the hospital reconfigured a scanner to improve doctors’ ability to see blood flow in the brain. The most serious risk from the radiation overdose is a brain tumor. Ethic experts state that if medical error was done, the hospital would have a legal obligation to tell patients of any mistake. To read more about the medical mistake, please click the link.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury

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October 13, 2009

Hospital Error Leads to Radiation Overdoses

Scores of radiation overdoses at a medical center have been traced to a single cause. That cause is a hospital mistake made when resetting a CT scanner. Hospital officials said that the medical error occurred in February 2008, when the hospital began using a new protocol for a specialized type of scan used to diagnose strokes. The doctors had believed it would provide them more useful data to analyze disruptions in the flow of blood to brain tissue. However this meant resetting the machine to override the pre-programmed instructions that came with the scanner when it was installed. There turned out to be a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the machine and as a result there were higher levels of radiation administered to patients. The dose of radiation was eight times what it should have been. Once the scanner was programmed each patient received the overdose. The hospital error went unnoticed for the next 18 months, when a stroke patient informed the hospital that he had begun using his hair after a scan. 206 people had received the overdoses and 40% of them had suffered patchy hair loss. Excess radiation would be difficult to detect from simply looking at the scan results. Radiation exposure increases the likelihood of cancer. To read more about the radiation overdoses, please click the link.

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Posted In: Medical Devices, Radiation Injury

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February 16, 2009

Ultraviolet Light Treatment Severely Burned Patient

A patient was being treated for the skin disease psoriasis when he suffered first and second degree burns from allegedly his doctor’s mistreatment. A medical panel conducted in October found the doctor took appropriate care when treating the patient, but the patient is now suing the doctor. The doctor has allegedly been involved in numerous medical malpractice cases.

Read more about the medical malpractice suit here.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury

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March 4, 2008

Illinois Cancer Center Sued After Wife Dies of Cancer

Ron Weidenfeller, through his attorneys at Levin and Perconti, has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Schaumburg-based Cancer Treatment Centers of America and its Midwestern Regional Medical Center in Zion on behalf of his wife who died from an undiagnosed colon obstruction.

Mrs. Weidenfeller had been complaining of severe pain, distention of her abdomen, and constipation in the days before she died. The Wiedenfeller’s requested tests to ensure she had no bowel obstruction, but instead of listening to the patient’s complaints, the facility assured the couple she would be fine and did not perform these tests. Ultimately, it was determined that the cause of death was sepsis from an undiagnosed perforated colon, revealed by an autopsy that facility staff suggested Mr. Weidenfeller not pursue.

This case is one more illustration of the devastating impact tort reform will have on victims of medical malpractice and negligence. Mr. Weidenfeller is seeking damages because he believes the facility was not candid with him about the events leading to his wife’s death. Should damages be limited where a medical facility simply fails to conduct a necessary test? How much do insurance costs affect a facility’s decision to conduct necessary testing? Shielding physicians and facilities from liability will only discourage them from taking measures necessary for the health and safety of our citizens. Perhaps the threat of liability would have provided the motivation to conduct proper testing to find Mrs. Weidenfeller’s bowel obstruction. Passage of significant tort reform measures will only increase the likelihood of negligence and malpractice and will prevent future Weidenfellers from seeking their just compensation.

For a link to this article, click here.


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Posted In: Radiation Injury, Tort Reform, Professional Malpractice

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March 1, 2007

$450,000 received in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit over botched spinal x-ray

A Madison County, Illinois jury awarded $450,000 in an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit on Thursday to an Illinois man hurt during a spinal x-ray in which the doctor, hospital, and clinic admitted they botched the test. The doctor injected the wrong chemical dye into the 81 year-old Illinois victim’s spine and the victim suffered tremendous muscle spasms and suffered from breathing difficulty that left him in the hospital for over two weeks. The Illinois jury deliberated for about 4 hours before giving their decision to the judge.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury, Verdicts and Settlements

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February 15, 2007

Illinois medical malpractice alleged over botched spinal X-ray

An Illinois jury awarded a Madison County man $450,000 on Thursday for his injuries resulting from a spinal X-ray in 2004 after the doctor, hospital, and clinic admitted botching the test. The basis for the Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit was a myleogram performed on the man. The doctor performing the test injected the wrong chemical dye into the patient’s spine for the scan and the patient suffered tremendous muscles spasms for more than two weeks. The medical malpractice led to a condition called arachnoiditis, inflammation of tissue inside the spine.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Radiation Injury

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July 7, 2006

Doctors place radiation seeds outside Illinois man’s prostate leading to loss of colon and bladder

Levin & Perconti is currently litigating a medical malpractice case against 2 physicians and the University of Chicago hospital for negligently performing brachytherapy on a patient with prostate cancer. The doctors placed radioactive seeds in or near the rectal wall causing a burn injury, radiation proctitis, and the loss of the patient’s colon and bladder.

The seeds should have been implanted within the prostate and many seeds were not, therefore causing the rectal burn injury.

The case is expected to go to trial later this year.


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Posted In: Failure to Diagnose Cancer, Radiation Injury

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The purpose of this blog is to deliver news and information that is relevant to our areas of practice. The news and information reported on this blog represent the legal actions of attorneys throughout the United States. Our firm does not claim to represent plaintiffs in all of the lawsuits, settlements, and jury verdicts reported, only those noted as Levin & Perconti cases.

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