The results can be disastrous when a hospital or medical professionals act improperly when it comes to treating a patient’s medical condition; a patient can sometimes even lose their life as a result of such negligent conduct.
A verdict was recently reached in a wrongful death case that involved alleged negligent treatment at an Illinois hospital.
While a 48-year-old man was a patient of the hospital in September 2009, he was given a diagnosis of having autoimmune hemolytic anemia. The man’s family alleged that the treatment that was then given to the man at the hospital for this condition wasn’t done properly. Specifically, they claimed that he wasn’t given enough blood during a blood transfusion. According to the family, this treatment error resulted in the man’s death. The man died in the early morning of Sept. 8, 2009, after having gone into cardiac arrest.
The man’s family brought a lawsuit in relation to the alleged negligent treatment. Last week, the jury in the case reached a verdict. The jury found that a doctor was negligent, that the hospital was the doctor’s apparent principle and that these two parties were responsible for the man’s death. The jury found that other medical professionals at the hospital were not negligent in the matter.
In relation to the findings regarding the doctor and the hospital, the jury granted the deceased man’s family a $1.6 million damages award.
Often, when a person is a patient of a hospital, they receive care from multiple medical professionals. Thus, when a person dies or is injured due to negligent treatment at a hospital, significant and complex questions can arise regarding which parties acted negligently and which parties can be held accountable for the injury/death. These are among the questions that experienced medical malpractice attorneys can investigate for medical negligence victims and/or their families.
Source: Journal Star, “Widow, children win malpractice suit,” Andy Kravetz, March 31, 2014
