Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice lawsuits come in many forms. Although your situation may seem utterly unique to you, the reality is that your case might be just one of many that occurred under similarly tragic circumstances. This is especially true if you’ve suffered from a stroke.

Like many other malpractice victims, you might find yourself wondering how or if you’ll ever bounce back. Make sure you understand the following if you or a loved one is struggling to cope after suffering a stroke or receiving a misdiagnosis.

Strokes Explained

Every invasive surgical procedure brings with it some level of risk. However, complex surgeries are usually most at risk and considered inherently dangerous when involving anesthesia, bleeding issues, the potential for blood clots and the time it takes to heal completely. The drugs used in anesthesia often produce a lingering side effect on the patient’s brain that can last months or years after the procedure. A blood clot or bleeding problem can cause near instant death.

Most deaths that occur in hospitals are the result of emergency surgeries where significant complications arise during the procedure. Doctors performing routine open-heart surgeries, transplants, and brain surgery usually have days, weeks or months to prepare for the operation to minimize the potential of serious difficulties that could result in death. Each of the top five most inherently dangerous surgeries has its unique problems that include:

Open-Heart Surgery

Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities was ordered to provide almost $29 million in compensation to a patient because specialists failed to diagnose her condition. A jury determined that the woman’s rare condition could have been treated with only minor complications had Mercy Clinic taken more proactive measures to provide a timely diagnosis and treatment, but she is now suffering catastrophic complications because the diagnosis was seriously delayed. The patient and her family alleged that they needed to plead with specialists to perform diagnostic tests when she was experiencing severe symptoms of Wilson’s disease and that the delay in ordering these tests resulted in permanent disability.

What is Wilson’s Disease?

Wilson’s Disease is a rare genetic disorder that causes copper to build up in vital organs throughout the body. The organs most impacted by excessive copper levels are the liver and the brain. When copper levels reach unsafe levels, it can result in permanent brain damage and neurological disorders that impact motor function, speech and cognition.

A pediatric surgeon specializes in the treatment of birth defects and childhood medical conditions through surgical procedures and ongoing care. Surgical errors occurring during these procedures may have a profound impact on the child’s physical and mental development and could severely alter his or her quality of living. The Chicago medical malpractice attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC work with families to ensure they can recover fair compensation when their child has been injured due to a surgical error so that they can continue to provide for the child’s needs throughout his or her life.

Procedures Performed by Pediatric Surgeons

In order to become a pediatric surgeon, doctors must be able to perform numerous types of procedures and treat a wide range of medical conditions. The conditions they may treat through surgery include the following.

Levin v. U.S., 568 U.S. 2013; 11-1351 (2013)

• 2013
• PERSONAL INJURY; MEDICAL BATTERY

Kawaauhau v. Geiger, 523 U.S. 57; 97-115

• 1998
• Category: Medical malpractice; bankruptcy

A Cook County woman has filed a lawsuit against her medical care provider after the misdiagnosis of her stroke led to permanent injuries. The lawsuit, filed on February 1, 2016, alleges that the plaintiff suffered physical and financial damages when her doctor misread a CT scan and delayed the treatment of her stroke. The defendants in the case are her doctor— Alejandra Campos and Pro Care Medical Center, which provided the plaintiff’s care. Yesenia Carrizosa, the plaintiff, is seeking over $50,000 in the lawsuit as well as additional damages to cover the cost of her legal representation.

Time is Critical in the Treatment of Stroke

A stroke occurs when the supply of oxygen to the brain is limited either due to a blood clot that has formed in a major artery or a hemorrhage that has resulted in massive internal bleeding within the brain. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical to ensuring the most positive prognosis for the patient and delaying treatment can result in permanent physical and mental impairment. When doctors suspect that a patient is suffering from a stroke, they will order imagine scans such as a CT scan to determine whether there is evidence of swelling or a blood clot within the brain.

Filthy surgical tools can easily lead to an outbreak of infections that appear many days, weeks or months after undergoing invasive medical procedures and surgeries. Using unsanitary surgical instruments as a part of a surgical procedure often causes cross-contamination of serious life-threatening diseases. This is often a significant problem for patients with compromised immune systems who are susceptible to deadly infections and sepsis.

Many patients of filed civil action against hospitals, surgeons and other health care professionals who use unclean medical tools. The recent outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections at hospitals in the US appear to be caused by unsanitary endoscopes. The bacterium is highly resistant to every form of available antibiotics.

Endoscopes are considered complex medical tools that are extremely challenging to disinfect and clean. However, the growing cases of cross contamination outbreaks caused by filthy medical equipment raises serious questions about keeping hospitals clean to minimize the risk to patients. Contaminated lab equipment and medical tools used as part of the manufacturing process of prescription medications also seem to be responsible for the spread of serious infections including meningitis and hepatitis.

In April 2015, jurors in a Chicago federal courtroom hearing a medical malpractice case returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $9.4 million. The jurors concluded that the surgeons improperly performed bariatric surgery on the 52-year-old Michigan City woman, leaving her with serious brain damage. This award is in addition to the $5 million out-of-court settlement from Downers Grove, Ill. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, where the botched bariatric surgery took place.

Attorneys representing plaintiff Kathryn Parker claim in 2010 she sought out medical assistance of Drs. Allen Mikhail and Jeffrey Rosen because she was suffering from obesity. The plaintiff was given the option of undergoing gastric bypass surgery to help her lose weight and regain her health. Her attorneys allege the doctors knew Ms. Parker suffered a condition requiring medication to thin her blood, but used the wrong drugs before her surgery.

The side effect of taking the wrong blood thinning drug could not be easily reversed. This became a significant issue when internal bleeding began unexpectedly.

One of the greatest risks that patients take when undergoing surgery is that of surgical site infections, which occur when the area operated on becomes contaminated or bacteria invade the incision site after the surgery. Of the reasons that patients return to the hospital following a postoperative discharge, infection is the most common as well as the easiest to prevent.

A recent study on hospital re-admissions has highlighted the need for more precautionary measures and monitoring of patients during recovery in order to detect infections early and to ensure that patients do not return home while the risk of infection is still a concern.

Hospital Readmission Study Results

Many hospitals have recently sought more insight concerning the alarming rates of readmission that patients experience in order to prevent readmissions and provide better service to their patients. It has been difficult to address the issue of readmission in the past because medical professionals simply didn’t know what factors have had the greatest influence on the need for patients to return.

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