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Chicago Hospital Error & Negligence Lawyer
Chicago Hospital Negligence Lawyers
Patients rely on the expertise of the medical team to provide the best care in a medical center or hospital. Typically, our health care provider orchestrates our medical care, and medical professionals and support staff carry out the physicians' orders and treatment from the patient's admission into the hospital and throughout the stay.
Unfortunately, hospital injuries can be serious for patients who are undergoing surgery, recuperating from the healing process, or and rehabilitation after a procedure. Some injuries can be severe and others fatal, resulting in wrongful death.
Hiring Chicago Hospital Error Lawyers
The medical malpractice attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers represent clients injured by their health care provider in a doctor's office, hospital, or medical center. Our Chicago hospital error injury team currently represents clients throughout the United States, Illinois, and Cook County, DuPage County, Kane County, Lake County, Will County, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Chicago, Elgin, Joliet, Naperville, and Waukegan.
Illinois Hospital Negligence Injury FAQs
Ready to Pursue a Medical Malpractice and Negligence Case Against a Hospital? It's Time to Talk to a Hospital Injury Lawyer
Every patient deserves to receive medical care in a clean and well-run hospital, according to an established standard of care. All medical providers working in the hospital and emergency room have a duty of care to provide each patient with needed treatment, rehabilitation, or surgical procedure to treat their medical condition.
However, some medical facilities have a broken system where medical errors, anesthesia errors, and surgical errors cause catastrophic problems resulting in harm to the patient. Examples of systematic hospital errors include:
- Administering the wrong medication
- Performing the wrong medical procedure on a patient
- Performing the procedure on the wrong patient
- Allowing bedsores (pressure sores) to develop during the patient's stay
- Failing to follow physician orders
- Misdiagnosing a life-threatening condition
- Labor and delivery problems that result in birth injury, brain damage, or cerebral palsy
- Using outdated or broken equipment (wheelchairs, beds, tables, etc.)
- Medical experts failing to protect patients from physical harm from intruders or staff
- Giving patients the wrong food
- Failing to maintain complete and comprehensive medical records to quickly identify allergies, medication reactions, and advanced directives
You can sue the Hospital. An Illinois Hospital Negligence Attorney can Help
In addition to errors that arise from inadequate hospital policy, the negligence of individual staff members, nurses, and orderlies might cause or contribute to a patient injury. Examples of individual staff negligence that commonly translate into serious injury or death of the patient include:
- Dropping patients
- Failing to aid during transfers into and out of bed
- Improperly drawing blood
- Pushing patients in wheelchairs into walls and elevator doors
Patient Falls in Hospitals and Medical Centers
The medical team preventing patient falls continues to be the largest safety issue in hospitals in the United States. A study done by the Flex Monitoring Team showed that falls account for 84% of all inpatient incidents, and 30% of these hospital falls are thought to result in serious injuries.
The falls happen often due to negligence on the part of the hospital including:
- Inadequate assistance devices for the patient
- Not preparing for medication side effects
- An inattentive or understaffed medical team
Hospital fall victims tend to stay in the hospital longer and generate higher medical bills. The total medical costs are 60% higher for those who have a fall in the hospital, and it is expected that these costs will reach more than $54 billion nationwide!
Sample Hospital Malpractice Awards & Verdicts in Illinois
$4,250,000 Settlement; Hospital Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois
Most hospitals are busy, where minutes are precious for a patient requiring emergent care. Because of that, the staff must always be alert.
In this hospital malpractice case, a little boy's parents took him to see the doctor when he was two years old at Palos Park, Illinois hospital. The staff diagnosed him with Croup and discharged him. Yet, a few days, his parents brought him back because he was not getting better.
While in the care of the hospital staff, the boy slipped out of consciousness, stopped breathing, and experienced cardiac arrest. The nurses' efforts to help were unsuccessful. The doctor did not see the boy for nearly a half-hour. He died the next day.
His parents sued the hospital and doctor for malpractice, alleging that their oversight and inadequate service caused the child's death. The plaintiffs sought compensation for their damages, including their pain, his pain, and all the loss that accompanied his death.
In a private settlement, the family received $4.25 million. The hospital paid the bulk of the settlement compensation came and the doctor paid about $750,000.
$7,000,000 Verdict; Hospital Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois
While the facts of the case were clear, determining who was at fault was challenging and required a jury verdict to decide. The elderly patient with post-traumatic stress disorder from prior military service was at the local hospital receiving treatment for an unrelated injury.
His doctors discharged from the hospital and sent him back to the nursing home via an ambulance where he was living. While in the ambulance, the vehicle came to a stop allowing him to break free from his restraints and attempt to escape.
However, when leaving the vehicle, he fell and sustained a massive brain injury that claimed his life a few hours later. The man's a state claim that the hospital did not inform the ambulance staff of his mental state. The lawsuit documents that the man was suicidal and had suffered other mental conditions that made him a danger to himself and others.
The plaintiffs claim that had the paramedics known of the man's mental status, they could have provided treatment differently to prevent his death. In response, the hospital claimed that they did inform the ambulance staff about the man's mental status, but that the paramedics took no action.
The case became a "he said, she said" argument that the hospital ultimately lost. The jury awarded the plaintiffs a $7 million verdict for their grief, suffering, and loss of society that his death because.
$965,000 Settlement; Hospital Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois
A male victim in his early 60's was involved in a combined medical malpractice case with a hospital and nursing home. In the summer of 2014, the patient entered a nursing facility without bedsores (pressure wounds, decubitus ulcers) on his body.
However, bedsores began to develop while he lived at the nursing home and degraded to the point that he needed to receive medical care at the hospital. His bedsores had developed on his spinal region of the spine.
His bedsores worsened while he was at the hospital. The victim believes that the hospital staff never heeded warnings nor followed the admittance documents prepared by the nursing home before his bedsores degraded to a life-threatening Stage IV.
The victim underwent debridement (cutting away dead tissue), and reconstructive surgery at the hospital. Due to his injuries, he filed a civil lawsuit against the hospital and the nursing facility, claiming that their combined malpractice caused him pain, disfigurement, disability, and extensive medical bills.
Both defendants (hospital and nursing home) agreed to a negotiated settlement of $870,000 in compensation for the injured victim. The hospital paid $95,000 in compensation, and the nursing facility paid the balance.
$6,450,000 Settlement; Hospital Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois
A fifty-five-year-old woman was admitted for surgery at a local hospital to undergo an implant pacemaker procedure. After the surgery, she began bleeding and suffering other severe complications.
The nursing staff decided to monitor her at the facility for nearly a month. After her discharge from the facility, she returned a few days later with difficulty in breathing and other troubling symptoms.
Soon afterward, she went into shock, had a heart attack, and died. The attorney for her estate discovered the original pacemaker procedure caused all her issues (medical malpractice).
Her surviving spouse and four children filed a civil lawsuit claiming wrongful death against the hospital. The document points out that all errors the hospital made and the ultimate consequence their mother endured led to her death.
The family chose to accept a negotiated settlement of $6.45 million on behalf of their loved one to recoup their damages.
Choose Hospital Negligence Lawyers Who Understand Illinois Law
Even if the circumstances regarding a patient's injury during hospitalization are unclear, Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers will investigate the matter and provide you with answers surrounding the incident. Once there is some clarity regarding the facts, we can then work with the hospital's risk manager on a settlement or proceed with a lawsuit against the medical institution and its employees.
Hospital Injury Lawyers in Chicago who Aren't Afraid to Fight for Your Rights
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers handles hospital negligence cases and medical malpractice claims through a contingency fee agreement to avoid paying any upfront fees.
Many law firms understandably shy away from Illinois medical malpractice cases because they can be too challenging and time-consuming. However, our entire personal injury legal team has experience both settling and trying medical negligence cases.
Please contact our medical malpractice attorneys at (888) 424-5757 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your medical malpractice lawsuit options in settling with insurance companies or taking your injury case to trial. All discussions with our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers remain confidential through an attorney-client relationship.
Please do not send sensitive information to our law office in a text message, email, or voicemail. Our nursing home abuse attorneys follow social distancing rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).