Chicago Hospital Negligence Lawyer

Patients rely on the medical team's expertise to provide the best care in a medical center or hospital. Typically, a patient's health care provider orchestrates their medical care. Nurses and support staff carry out the physicians' orders and treatment from admission into the medical facility and throughout the stay.

Unfortunately, hospital injuries can be severe for patients undergoing surgery, recuperating during the surgical recovery, or rehabilitation after a procedure. Some injuries can be severe such as brain damage that leads to cerebral palsy, and even fatalities, resulting in wrongful death malpractice claims.

Our personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC will ensure your claim has the highest chance of approval to get the compensation you need.

Discuss your compensation claim with our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers, who will protect your rights and seek the compensation you may be entitled to receive. Contact our law firm at (888) 424-5757 to schedule a free consultation.

When It's Time to Talk to an Experienced Hospital Negligence Lawyer

According to an established standard of care, all patients deserve medical care in a clean and well-run hospital. All medical providers working in the hospital and emergency rooms 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, nursing errors, incorrect treatment, and surgical mistakes cause catastrophic problems resulting in harm to the patient.

Examples of systematic errors in medical malpractice cases include:

• A healthcare professional 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 doctor’s orders.
• Misdiagnosing or failure to diagnose a life-threatening condition
• Labor and delivery problems result in birth injuries, brain damage, or cerebral palsy.
• Using outdated or broken equipment (wheelchairs, beds, tables, etc.)
• Medical experts fail to protect patients from physical harm from intruders or hospital employees.
• Giving patients the wrong food.

Failure to maintain complete and comprehensive medical records to identify allergies, medication reactions quickly, and advanced directives have injured and killed thousands of healthcare malpractice victims.

Injured victims of healthcare malpractice can sue a hospital for negligence. This legal theory differs from filing a healthcare malpractice lawsuit against a doctor for healthcare professionals' errors.

Independent Contractor in Medical Negligence

An independent contractor is a doctor, nurse, or other health care provider who is not an employee of the hospital. If the negligence of an independent healthcare provider harmed you, you might still have a claim against the hospital.

To hold a hospital liable for the negligence of an independent healthcare provider, you will need to prove that the hospital was negligent in its selection or supervision of the contractor. Proving negligence in a hospital setting can be complex, and working with an experienced healthcare malpractice lawyer is crucial.

You Can Sue the Hospital: How a Medical Negligence Attorney Can Help

In addition to hospital errors resulting from inadequate hospital policy, the hospital’s negligence of individual hospital staff members and nurses may cause or contribute to a patient's injuries.

Examples of individual hospital staff negligence that commonly translate into severe injuries or death of the patient include:

• Dropping patients
• Failing to assist with transfers in and out of bed
• Improperly drawing blood

Medical malpractice lawsuits often involve long-lasting pain and suffering. The state legislature attempted to restrict the amount victims filing medical malpractice lawsuits could recover in damages. Still, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a law that limited how much victims can recover.

You now may be able to receive damages for economic losses such as lost income and emotional distress.

You could seek financial recovery if a patient suffered damages caused by a hospital error by a healthcare provider in various practice areas, including:

• Surgical malpractice
• Dental malpractice
• Hospital malpractice
• Chiropractic malpractice
• Birth injury malpractice, including cerebral palsy and brain damage

Patient Falls in Hospitals and Illinois Medical Centers

The medical team preventing patient falls continues to be the most extensive 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 often happen due to negligence on the part of the medical facility, including:

• Inadequate assistance medical devices for the patient
• Failure to diagnose a medical condition
• Not preparing for medication side effects
• An inattentive or understaffed medical team

Hospital fall victims tend to stay in the facility longer and generate higher medical expenses. The total medical bills are 60% higher for those who fall in the hospital, and these costs are expected to reach more than $54 billion nationwide!

Hospital Negligence

Negligent actions by hospital staff can cause severe harm or even death to patients. Besides the hospital, other medical professionals that can be liable for a negligent act are doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and pharmacists.

Your state's medical malpractice statute of limitations may be as short as one year. If you were injured in a hospital, you need to act quickly. It involves contacting an experienced medical malpractice attorney and letting the legal professional hear your case.

Hospital liability in medical malpractice lawsuits can be highly complex. Many healthcare providers are involved in a patient's care, from doctors and nurses to therapists and pharmacists.

Healthcare providers’ negligence in birth injuries, medication errors, surgery, anesthesia, emergency care, and even failure to maintain the patient’s medical records can be devastating. If you or your loved one has been the victim of hospital malpractice, or lack of care by a healthcare provider, it's essential to speak with an experienced hospital malpractice attorney to discuss your legal process options.

Numerous Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

$965,000 Settlement; Hospital Medical Malpractice Claim; Cook County, Illinois

A male victim in his early 60s was involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit with a hospital and nursing home.

In 2014, the patient entered a nursing facility without bedsores (pressure wounds, decubitus ulcers) on his body.

However, bedsores began to develop while living in the nursing center, and he deteriorated. He sought the appropriate treatment in the hospital emergency room. His bedsores had formed on his spinal region of the spine.

The bedsores worsened while receiving medical treatment from a professional team in the hospital. The victim believes that the hospital medical professionals never heeded warnings nor followed the admittance documents, which included the patient’s medical records, prepared by the convalescent home before his 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 contacted an experienced attorney. He filed a medical malpractice case against the hospital, doctors, and the nursing facility, claiming that their combined healthcare malpractice caused him pain, disfigurement, disability, and extensive medical bills.

The defendants (hospital, medical professional, and nursing facility) agreed to a negotiated settlement of $870,000 compensation for the injured victim. The medical facility paid $95,000 in compensation, and the nursing facility paid the balance of the medical malpractice claim.

$6,450,000 Settlement; Hospital Medical Malpractice Case; Cook County, Illinois

A fifty-five-year-old woman was admitted for surgery at a Chicago 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 for nearly a month at the facility. After her discharge from the facility, she returned with breathing difficulty and other troubling symptoms a few days later.

Soon afterward, she went into shock, had a heart attack, and died. The personal injury attorney for her estate discovered the original pacemaker procedure caused all her issues (medical malpractice).

Her surviving spouse and four children filed a medical malpractice claim, citing untimely death against the hospital and medical professionals. The plaintiffs' trial lawyers pointed out that all the facility's mistakes during her medical treatment and the ultimate consequence the woman endured led to her death.

Working with their experienced medical malpractice attorney, the family chose to resolve their malpractice case by accepting a negotiated settlement of $6.45 million on behalf of their loved one to recoup their damages.

Choose Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Attorneys Who Understand Illinois Law

Even if the circumstances regarding a patient's injuries during hospitalization are unclear, Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers will investigate the legal issue and provide you with answers surrounding the incident. Contact us for your free case evaluation.

Once there is some clarity regarding the facts, our hospital malpractice attorneys can work with the hospital's risk manager on a settlement or proceed with a hospital lawsuit against the medical institution and its employees for the personal injury caused to the victim.

Many Chicago, IL medical malpractice law firms understandably shy away from healthcare providers negligence cases because they can be too challenging and time-consuming.

However, our entire personal injury legal team from our law offices has experience negotiating settlements and trying health care providers negligence cases in court. We take the time to build a provable case to hold medical providers responsible for the damages they cause. 

Our lawyers are experts in getting the necessary evidence, such as documents under the doctor-patient relationship confidentiality principle.

Families who lost a loved one through a preventable death can file a wrongful death lawsuit. These medical malpractice claims pay for damages, including:

• Medical expenses
• Lost income
• Loss of consortium
• Funeral and burial expenses
• Pain and suffering

Hospital Injury Lawyers in Chicago, IL, Who Aren't Afraid to Fight for Your Rights

The personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC handle medical malpractice claims and medical malpractice lawsuits through a contingency fee agreement so that you avoid paying any upfront fees.

Contact our hospital malpractice attorneys at (888) 424-5757 or use the contact form to schedule a free case evaluation to discuss your malpractice lawsuit options in settling with insurance companies or taking your compensation case to trial.

Our law firm's practice areas include motor vehicle accidents, work-related accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, dental malpractice, nursing home abuse, product liability, and preventable death.

Attorneys from our law offices currently represent clients who have suffered harm due to the hospital’s failure to give sufficient attention to avoiding harm or errors throughout Illinois and the United States. Call our law firm today for a free consultation.

All communication with our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers remains confidential through an attorney-client relationship.

Resources:

• National Institutes of Health – Medical Malpractice
• Medical Negligence: What does it involve?