Medical Malpractice Case Results

K.B. v Kim- $30,000,000.00 jury verdict in a birth injury case for a six-year-old girl who suffered cerebral palsy due to a delayed emergency cesarean section, delivery.

Unnamed Plaintiff v. Chicago-area hospital and perfusionist – Unnamed Plaintiff v. Chicago-area hospital and perfusionist $13,000,000.00 medical malpractice settlement for a 9-month-old child who sustained neurologic injuries due to hypoxia and ischemia suffered during a surgery to repair an aortic stenosis. While our client was on bypass there was a significant drop in cerebral oxygenation and a subsequent delay in administering blood products, which ultimately caused the brain injuries. The hospital settled for $12,000,000.00 and the perfusionist’s employer paid its policy limit of $1,000,000.00. Read more

Estate of M.G. v. Maria Zurawski, R.N.; Acute Extracorporeal Services, Ltd.; Advocate Christ Medical Center
$12,261,131.00 medical malpractice jury verdict in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois for a 49-year-old gentleman who died after failing to receive emergent plasmapheresis for thrombotic thrombocytopenia purpura (TTP). The jury found defendants Acute Extracorporeal Services, Ltd., a subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care North America, and Advocate Christ Medical Center negligent. Read more

D.B. v. Advocate Medical Group, S.C.- $10,500,000.00 medical malpractice jury verdict for a 72-year-old woman who suffered an above knee amputation of her leg due to a failure of the emergency room doctor to diagnose bacterial cellulitis. She was discharged from the emergency room before the blood test results were reported and the doctor never called her back to the hospital for care. The blood tests showed she likely had an infection rather than the diagnosis of gout that the emergency room doctor wrongly selected.

S.D. v. Advocate Christ Medical Center – $9,900,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case brought on behalf of a boy, then 18 months old, who suffered brain injuries due to negligent post-operative care at that institution in April 2003. The child developed post-operative bleeding that went undetected and untreated by the physician overseeing the child’s care in the pediatric intensive care unit which led to his arrest and brain damage.

$9,350,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case for a 49-year-old gentleman who suffered disabling injuries after brain surgery to remove a 5 cm olfactory groove meningioma. The physicians and their experts claimed they did nothing wrong, and that the mortality and serious morbidity rates for this type of surgery exceeded 20%. The settlement will enable the injured party to move home and receive home nursing care after having spent more than 5 years living in a nursing home.

E.O. v. Edgewater Medical Center – $9,346,933.64 jury verdict in a medical malpractice case for a 42-year-old man who died in 2000 as a result of unnecessary heart surgery. Read More

Estate of M.R. v. a Chicago anesthesiologist and hospital – $8,000,000.00 wrongful death settlement. 52-year old woman died after anesthesiologist failed to intubate her when she went into respiratory arrest during surgery to remove an enlarged thyroid gland. The doctor paid his $2,000,000.00 policy and the hospital, sued under the principle of apparent agency, paid the rest. We were able to establish that the anesthesiologist made thirty untrue entries on his one page anesthesia record.

J.F. v. A suburban physician group – $7,900,000.00 settlement in a birth injury case for a four-year-child with moderate cerebral palsy due to a physician’s neglect in delaying delivery. The case was settled within six months of filing, greatly reducing lawyers’ expenses and fees. The doctor should have understood that the fetal heart tracings showed an ominous pattern indicative of hypoxia and ischemia and that a cesarean delivery was necessary to protect the baby. He proceeded to a vaginal delivery instead, delaying the birth and increasing the baby’s exposure to harm.

J.H. v. University of Chicago Hospitals – $7,250,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case for a seven-year-old brain damaged girl. She suffered an anoxic arrest in the emergency room after 7 hours of medical care that did not properly treat her sickle cell crisis.

M.C.K. v. NWMH – $7,000,000.00 settlement for the birth injuries sustained by a girl during her delivery. She suffers from cerebral palsy, and now lives at home with her mother.

S.M. v. Michael Reese Hospital -Settled claims of a mother and her brain damaged child for $5,750,000.00. Child suffered cerebral palsy as the result of medical negligence during the two hours immediately before the delivery. As part of the settlement, an annuity to pay lifelong benefits to the child was established.

$5,008,921.72 Tazewell County jury verdict for the estate of a 36-year-old woman who bled to death during at DaVinci robotic hysterectomy procedure at Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois. The gynecologist accidently lacerated her left iliac artery and she bled internally for approximately 2 hours before the injury was detected. Meanwhile, the anesthesia staff failed to diagnose the internal bleeding despite the presence of clear indicators of distress in our client’s vital signs.

U.P. v. Northwest Community Hospital, Nephology Associates of Northern Illinois, Dr. Venkata Behara, Dr. Tina Han, and Dr. – $5,000,000.00 medical malpractice settlement to 64-year-old woman for negligent treatment of hyponatremia, which resulted in a disabling brain injury known as pontine myelinolysis. Read more…

E.H. v. Michael Reese Hospital – Settled claims for the wrongful death of a 35-year-old single woman, survived by her minor daughter, for $3,800,000.00. The mother gave birth to her daughter four days before her death, and succumbed to a pulmonary embolism while she was a patient in the postpartum unit. The hospital and the physicians failed to institute any prophylaxis against pulmonary embolism, despite the mother being at high risk for the complication.

$3,021,803.98

Pfaff, Gill & Ports, Ltd., reached a $3 million settlement on behalf of a client who suffers from cauda equina syndrome due to mistakes made during her medical care at a Chicago hospital. Read more about this case.

M.M. v. C.M.H. – $3,000,000.00 settlement for an adolescent boy who sustained a brain injury due to an overdose of Phenobarbital given to him when he was a newborn.

Estate of T.S. v. Rush University Medical Center – Our client was a 74-year-old man with severe heart disease. He consented to participate in a clinical trial that involved injecting the inside wall of the left ventricle of his heart with stem cells to regenerate heart muscle. The doctor, using a medical device approved by the FDA only for investigational uses, perforated the wall of the heart and lacerated a cardiac vein. This led to cardiac tamponade that another cardiologist employed by Rush University tried to repair. Those efforts led to a significant laceration of the heart wall, a hematoma, and our client’s death. The suit against Rush, the doctors’ employer, the medical device manufacturer, and the clinical trial sponsor was settled for $2,800,000.00.

J.L. v. Trinity Hospital – $2,750,000.00 settlement plus $1,000,000.00 consent judgment in a medical malpractice lawsuit for the benefit of the surviving spouse and children of a 35-year-old woman who died due to the failure to treat acute pelvic inflammatory disease.

A.S. v. Hospital and Emergency Medicine Group at Suburban Chicago Hospital – $2M settlement for 54 year-old woman who suffered perforated stomach due to slipped lap band that went undiagnosed by a physicians assistant in the emergency department of a large suburban Chicago hospital. Patient was sent home with “the flu.” She returned 24 hours later and underwent emergency surgery. She became septic and underwent 3 more surgeries, including a total gastrectomy. The emergency room providers claimed that a radiologist failed to include in her report that the lap band was in a different position than in prior studies, and that a CT and/or surgical consult should have been recommended. Suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County in 2015 and prosecuted by Michael Gill. The case settled at mediation before Hon. Dennis Burke (ret.) in January of 2019.

M.C. v. Raj – $1,800,000.00 settlement to the surviving parents and half-brother of a nineteen month old child who died at Lutheran General Hospital. Plaintiff had hydrocephalus, and was being treated with an external ventricular drain to reduce the amount of cerebrospinal fluid in his brain. The drain malfunctioned, and despite adverse neurological signs and symptoms over the course of 20 hours it was not replaced by the attending neurosurgeon. As a result, he suffered cardio-respiratory arrest and died.

Estate of W.R. v. John Ebihara, M.D., et al. – $1,800,000.00 wrongful death settlement. 57-year-old man died due to the failure of 3 internists to timely diagnose and treat bacterial endocarditis. Survived by his widow and 3 adult children.

Estate of W.L. v. suburban OB/GYN and Chicago-area hospital – $, 1,800,000.00 settlement for wrongful death of newborn, survived by loving mother and father. We claimed that the delivering physician and the nurses failed to identify the baby’s deteriorating condition as could be seen on the fetal monitoring strips. We believe that a c-section done at any time in the hours before delivery would have easily saved the child. An additional claim against the hospital was added for negligent credentialing after it was discovered that the Illinois licensing board had cited the defendant physician with “gross negligence” for past poor labor and delivery care.

Estate of T.C. v. Luca Cicalese, M.D. – $1,500,000.00 wrongful death settlement. 42 year-old man bled to death following a kidney-pancreas transplant surgery at UIC. Mr. C bled excessively during the procedure as a result of taking Plavix. The surgeon failed to timely treat the Plavix-related bleeding.

S.S. v. Winslow – $1,100,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case to the family of a 62-year-old husband and father of four who died as a result of congestive heart failure which was not properly treated by his cardiologist. The patient had four prior open heart surgeries for valve problems, and would not have required a fifth surgery had the defendant physician properly diagnosed his condition.

K.H. v. Hospital – $1,000,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case for an eleven-year-old boy who suffered damage due to a cardiac arrest 9 days after open heart surgery.

T.M., Individually and as Parent and Next Friend of, Jane Doe, a minor, v. Darwin Jackson, M.D.; and Family Planning Associates Medical Group, Ltd. – $950,000.00 medical malpractice jury verdict. Our client, a 14-year-old minor, presented to the clinic to undergo an elective suction termination of a 7-8 week pregnancy. An ultrasound done prior to the procedure appeared to show an intrauterine pregnancy. After he did not initially obtain any products of conception during the procedure, the doctor failed to identify an ectopic pregnancy, continued with the procedure, punctured the uterus, ruptured the pregnancy, and caused massive internal bleeding. Our client was transferred to the hospital where she ultimately underwent a life-saving supracervical hysterectomy. Read More

A.S. v. OB/GYN Surgeon and her Hospital Employer – $950,000.00 settlement in a medical malpractice case for a 51-year-old woman against her surgeon and her surgeon’s hospital employer. Surgeon was attempting operative treatment for a fibroid uterus and menorrhagia. During the surgery, the surgeon injured the plaintiff’s colon requiring another surgeon to step in and emergently attempt to repair the injuries. As a direct result of the doctor’s negligence, plaintiff required a hysterectomy, was forced to have a colostomy bag for three months and suffered from a recto-vaginal fistula for seven months. She now has diet restrictions and intermittent abdominal discomfort.

Estate of W.T. v. Isaac Thapedi, M.D. – $950,000.00 wrongful death settlement for estate of a 69 year-old man who underwent an anterior cervical decompression and fusion by Dr. Isaac Thapedi. Dr. Thapedi failed to decompress the spinal cord, failed to recognize that the spinal cord remained compressed, and failed to re-operate. As a result, Mr. T was discharged and spent the remainder of his life in nursing homes. He died on September 16, 2004 from sepsis related to decubitus ulcers. The settlement was paid 3 days before trial by ISMIE in response to plaintiff’s $1 Million policy demand.

Estate of F.M. v. USA – $934,126.00 verdict for wrongful death in Federal Tort Claims Act case for estate of 76-year-old man who died at the West Side V.A. Hospital 4 days after a lung biopsy because Drs. Ziad Hanhan and Norman Snow failed to prevent and/or timely diagnose and treat a pulmonary embolism. This bench trial was tried before Hon. Matthew F. Kennelly (USDC ND IL).

N.B. v. MacNeal Hospital, et. al. – $801,642.57 verdict in a medical malpractice case for the estate of a 78-year-old man. Plaintiff claimed that the defendants failed to timely appreciate and treat a large hemorrhage in the decedent’s chest which led to his death during a femoro-popliteal bypass.

J.V. v. Scott Multack, D.O. – $800,000.00 settlement in a birth injury case to the parents of a stillborn boy who suffered from intrauterine growth retardation which was not diagnosed before his death by the obstetrician managing the prenatal care. Ultrasound evidence indicated a substantial possibility of growth retardation which was never followed up by the obstetrician. Had the diagnosis been reached, an induced or cesarean delivery would have prevented the stillbirth. The amount paid is the highest in Illinois for an Illinois stillbirth settlement.

Estate of L.G. v. County of Cook – $800,000.00 wrongful death settlement. 63-year-old man died due to nursing staff’s failure to provide Vitamin K and blood products as ordered to treat accidental Coumadin overdose. Survived by adult son. Case settled before disclosure of expert witnesses.

R.O. v. Sudarsanarao Akkineni, M.D. – $736,600.00 medical negligence verdict for 41 year-old man who suffers from neurogenic bowel and bladder due to the delayed diagnosis and treatment of cauda equina syndrome. Good Samaritan Hospital settled for $1.35 million, but Dr. Akkineni and ISMIE, his insurer, made no settlement offer. Michael Gill tried the case against Dr. Akkineni in DuPage County before the Hon. Hollis Webster.

S.S. v. Children’s Memorial Hospital – $250,000.00 medical malpractice settlement involving 22-year-old plaintiff having mid-face skeletal reconstructive surgery at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Following the surgery, nasal packing was inserted but was not taken about prior to discharge. In follow-up visits after many complaints related to lack of taste, odor and uncontrollable nasal drainage, the packing was discovered and removed. The retained nasal packing caused a hole, some internal scarring and still allows for some unwanted nasal drainage from time to time.

D.M. v. Michael Reese One Day Surgery Center – Substantial settlement of wrongful death claim of 36-year-old gentleman who had a hernia surgery at this outpatient center. He arrested during the procedure, suffered massive brain damage, and died 3 weeks later. His widow wishes to keep the amount of the settlement private.