Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Hurley McKenna & Mertz recently won a case in the Illinois First District Appellate Court. This was a medical malpractice case brought on behalf of an elderly woman that was given too much gentamicin. This antibiotic is known to cause kidney failure when given over long periods of time. Christopher T. Hurley and Mark R. McKenna tried the case to a jury in 2005 and were awarded $3.2 million for the loss of our client's kidney function. The appellate court upheld that verdict and further ruled that the trial judge should have allowed our expert to testify on the issue of past and future medical expenses. The case was reported in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin by John Rooney on May 7, 2007. Click below to see the Law Bulletin story.

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Bringing a successful case for medical malpractice in Illinois for aquiring an infection in the hospital can be difficult because it can be hard to prove when and where the infection first occurred. Without this evidence it is difficult to prove negligence. I am not aware of an Illinois case that has been successful on this issue. Let me know if you have heard of one.

This West Virginia case appears to have overcome the problems with proximate cause.

Allison Riggs went to a West Virginia hospital for a routine knee operation and left with a severe infection that, over the course of the next four years, ate away at the interior of her knee until the metal hardware used to hold the knee together migrated up into her thigh. Although the jury awarded $10.1 million for her pain and suffering, the trial judge reduced the verdict to $1 million based on the state's statutory cap on non-economic damages. In spite of the reduction, plaintiff's attorney Paul Farrell Jr. (ATLA Member) said the verdict is significant because it is the first in West Virginia and one of the first in the country in which a hospital has been found liable for failing to maintain a clean environment."

Natalie White, Lawyers USA, 10/9/06 (Subscribers Only)
http://www.lawyersusaonline.com/subscriber/archives.cfm?page=usa/06/A090655.htm

Three decades after a botched surgery changed her life, Janet Mitchell of Orange tells the story in the book 'Taking a Stand,' released this month. As a teenager in 1977, Mitchell had knee surgery to correct a bone defect that doctors thought would lead to arthritis. The surgeon, Dr. Glen A. Almquist, sliced tendons and ligaments behind Mitchell's right knee, leaving her unable to walk. She has endured 10 surgeries and years of rehabilitation. Then, 16 years after the first surgery, one of Mitchell's doctors confessed the truth: She was a victim of medical error. A jury in 1999 found Almquist guilty of concealment, fraud and malpractice. Health experts estimate that up to 100,000 Americans die each year as the result of preventable medical errors, and thousands more are injured."

Blythe Bernhard, Orlando Sentinel, 10/28/06
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/health/15871771.htm

Jaymes Song of the Associated Press reports that a brain damaged baby was awarded $16.5 million by a federal judge in Hawaii. Instead of oxygen the baby was given carbon dioxide until he was permanently brain damaged:

A minute into Izzy Peterson's life, a doctor administered what she believed to be oxygen to give the newborn's breathing a boost. But for 41 minutes, Izzy was accidentally given carbon dioxide, which slowly ate away at his life. Izzy, born healthy on Jan. 14, 2005, is now silent with severe brain damage. He breathes through a tube in his neck and eats through another connected to his stomach. The 1 year old requires around-the-clock nursing care at his home in San Antonio and is expected to die before he turns 30. Chief U.S. District Judge David Ezra on Thursday ruled the federal government must pay the boy's family $16.5 million in damages, which is believed to be the largest verdict for a single person in a personal injury case in Hawaii."

Jaymes Song, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, 10/20/06
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8KS5V483.html

I think it is important to note that this is a judge making this award and not a jury. While the amount may seem high to some people, the fact is that it takes millions of dollars to care for a brain damaged child.

A Maryland jury awarded $6.4 million to a family for the wrongful death of a wife and mother. After puncturing the her pulmonary artery with a catheter the victim was discharged and her artery ruptured after discharge. The artery should have been surgically repaired before discharge from the hospital.