Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Many wrongly assume that medical malpractice cases are “frivolous;” or, that medical malpractice lawyers are merely trying to make money by suing doctors for petty mistakes. The opposite is true. Mike Stobbe writes on a study by the New England Journal of Medicine that says “only 1 in 5 medical malpractice cases pay.” Meaning, lawyers are taking huge risks in accepting a med mal case: trial lawyers pay enormous up-front costs to bring a med mal claim to court, including the high cost of hiring expert witnesses. Trial lawyers must also combat a medical field with significant means and legal sway. Even more, some states have caps on medical malpractice awards. Considering the aforementioned, trial lawyers choose important and significant cases that make weighing these obstacles worthwhile for all parties involved.

Stobbe writes on the study published Wednesday, “Each year about 1 in 14 doctors is the target of a claim, and most physicians and virtually every surgeon will face at least one in their careers.” Again, while the study seems to support a public opinion that medical malpractice cases are “frivolous,” the authors of the study suggest a more complicated reading. They cite the emotional distress of doctors, the high cost for lawyers, and the tiny fraction of people who actually file claims.

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Two recent malpractice lawsuits are bringing issues of care to the forefront.

From Bloomberg News, Laurence Viele Davidson reports on a $2.1 million settlement in Kentucky. An Army soldier, Staff Sgt. Adam Cloer, of Missouri, filed a claim over the treatment of his wife’s illness at a military hospital. The lawsuit claimed that the staff at the military hospital in Fort Campbell, Ky. ignored his wife’s symptoms and misdiagnosed her illness. The hospital neglected to screen Melodee Cloer for rectal cancer, despite her serious symptoms. Due to their negligence, Ms. Cloer’s cancer spread and after many subsequent surgeries, she died at the age of 53.

Insurance Journal covers another shocking story of malpractice out of West Virginia. Dorothy Douglas, who suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, spent 20 days in a Carlyle Group nursing unit, HCR ManorCare Inc., before dying in a hospital. Her son Tom Douglas claims that Ms. Douglas suffered from dehydration and renal failure due to an understaffed and incompetent nursing facility. The nursing home will appeal to a $91.5 million verdict. Douglas’ lawyers had targeted the same facility the year before, winning a $1.5 million verdict.

These horrific stories are not consoling to someone thinking about placing a loved one under the care of a nursing facility or hospital. Picking the right facility to care for loved ones can be an extremely difficult decision; but, issues of neglect and lack of sufficient care should not have to be a worry. Nursing homes and hospitals must be held accountable for the type and quality of care they provide. Without demanding justice in the field of care, our loved ones will continue to suffer do to an air of unaccountability. As a Chicago nursing home and medical malpractice attorney, I am hopeful that in keeping these facilities on their toes, our loved ones will get the care and attention they deserve. Those who have been wronged due to medical malpractice should seek justice to ensure this right.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that there are almost as many medical malpractice claims paid on behalf of physicians as there are paid by hospitals. As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, it does not surprise me that "physician offices are nearly as malpractice prone as hospitals". The numbers suggest a serious problem in communication and care in outpatient facilities.

The almost equal number of malpractice cases in physicians’ offices to hospitals is not surprising considering there are “30 times more outpatient visits than hospital charges each year;” however, the rising problems with safety and care in outpatient facilities suggest that physicians’ offices “may not have the same safety controls as hospitals." Other than these potential slip-ups in safety controls, JAMA’s research suggests that the leading source of malpractice claims are from diagnostic errors.

Although ensuring patient safety and good care in outpatient facilities can be challenging, both inpatient and outpatient institutions who disregard crucial elements of care should be held accountable for their actions. Patient care must be held to the highest priority. Individuals who have suffered sub-par care have legal rights.

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I join Medicare’s new chief in his plan to increase the quality and safety of medical care. Medicare's new chief “called for more steps to improve patient safety Tuesday, in the wake of a government report that said one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients is harmed during their stay.” (Washington AP, 11/16).

The new HHS report “analyzed the records of 780 Medicare patients hospitalized in October 2008 to examine mistakes and unavoidable consequences of treatment, such as previously unknown drug allergies or medication side effects.” During that month alone, over 130,000 Medicare patients suffered an adverse effect while in the hospital. Nearly half of these were preventable.

Additionally, about 1,500 patients per month suffered complications from treatment that contributed to their deaths. In response, a new Medicare "innovation center" was opened recently that is “designed to develop and test ways to improve quality of care and lower health care costs for everyone, not just Medicare recipients. The program is one of several established by the new health care law to help Medicare spur improvements in patient safety.”

Initial projects target coordination across multiple health providers so that new providers know what tests have been performed elsewhere. Other goals include increasing primary care quality to reduce the chances that patients end up hospitalized.

According to a recent report released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are in an obesity crisis. With obesity rates reaching 30 percent in nine states last year, in stark contrast to only three states in 2007, it appears as though America is getting fatter and fatter. (D. Grady, NY Times, 8/3). Sadly, between 2007 and 2009, “2.4 million more people became obese…bringing the total to 72.5million or 26.7 percent of the population.” Even more worrying is the fact that these rates came from an anonymous phone survey in which 400,000 participants were asked their height and weight.

In recent decades, obesity rates have doubled in adults and tripled in children, establishing a consistent and ominous trend that is increasing faster than anyone could have predicted. What people do not readily understand is that obesity has serious health consequences including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Increasing obesity rates only means increasing deaths due to obesity-related health problems.

Not only is obesity deadly, it is costly as estimates of the medical costs of obesity are as high as $147 billion a year. Conscious food and exercise choices are low cost solutions for many, but old habits die hard. As a medical malpractice and personal injury attorney, my best advice is to make health conscious decisions and develop good habits. However, I think we will be facing the consequences of the obesity crisis for decades.

As a medical malpractice lawyer, I am very disheartened by the following story, which illustrates the major affect that health insurance has on health outcomes and the health care system in general.

Madison part reports for CNN, “a freelance cameraman's appendix ruptured and by the time he was admitted to surgery, it was too late. A self-employed mother of two is found dead in bed from undiagnosed heart disease. A 26-year-old aspiring fashion designer collapsed in her bathroom after feeling unusually fatigued for days. What all three of these people have in common is that they experienced symptoms, but didn't seek care because they were uninsured and they worried about the hospital expense... All three died” (9/18).

Research released last week in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that 45,000 deaths per year in the United States are associated with the lack of health insurance, and have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance. The estimate came from careful examination of government health surveys from more than 9,000 people between the ages of 17 and 94.

Hurley, McKenna & Mertz settles many medical malpractice cases each year. The following situation is upsetting, in my opinion, because Chicago area ophthalmologist, Dr. Nicholas Caro, is still practicing despite upwards of 50 medical malpractice suits and a year-old recommendation from the Illinois chief medical prosecutor that the Lasik surgeon have his license revoked (Chicago Tribune, Shelton 7/6). Depositions and documents complied for the cases against Dr. Caro consistently describe patients “repeatedly seeking treatment for painful or worrisome side effects” post Lasik surgery. Medical records show that some patients returned to Dr. Caro more than a dozen times after surgery. Several patients ended up with corneas damaged beyond repair, others were forced to consider cornea transplants if they wanted to see as well as they could prior to the botched surgery.

The formal complaint alleges that Caro mishandled Lasik surgeries and “failed to properly manage treatment of post-operative complications.” Yet, no disciplinary action has been taken and Caro continues to operate on people's eyes, highlighting ongoing concerns that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is not aggressive enough in pursuing bad doctors.

Although Dr. Caro blames the situation on an overly litigious society, according to the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company, which insures about 30 percent of U.S. ophthalmologists, “about 75 percent of the specialists who practice at least 25 years have three or fewer lawsuits or malpractice claims in their career.” The Chicago Tribune further “checked the records of more than a dozen other ophthalmologists in the Chicago area and found that none had been sued for malpractice more than 12 times; most had far fewer lawsuits.” Therefore, it is my opinion that Dr. Caro is far above what can be considered an average number of malpractice complaints. As a medical malpractice lawyer, I am disappointed with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s sluggish response to complaints against Dr. Caro. In my opinion, patients are subjected to undue risks each additional day Dr. Caro is permitted to practice.

A blog on the New York Times (6/6) website discusses the different points of view on the medical malpractice “crisis”. Jeremy Peters wrote, "For years…health care lobbyists have argued that the exceedingly high cost of medical malpractice insurance was a result of a runaway legal system that allowed juries to award huge judgments to victims of doctors' mistakes."

However, "a new report from an independent government watchdog group suggests that those claims are exaggerated." The study by the New York Public Interest Research Group found that "the amount of money paid for malpractice claims in New York has actually fallen in recent years, and that the number of overall claims has remained remarkably stable.” Tom Baker wrote in his book, The Medical Malpractice Myth (U. Chicago Press), that a “California study, as confirmed by more recent, better publicized studies” verifies “that the real problem is too much medical malpractice, not too much litigation.” He found that “most people do not sue, which means that victims—not doctors, hospitals, or liability insurance companies—bear the lion’s share of the costs of medical malpractice.”

Many public complaints about the medical malpractice “crisis” have been greatly exaggerated. Doctors who have not exercised due care with their patients should be liable for injuries their negligence caused. As a medical malpractice lawyer, I provide a service to those who have been injured by the negligence of medical care providers.