M.B. v. A Local Community Hospital and Family Medicine Physician

(2022) Medical Malpractice: Plaintiff presented to a local community hospital after her bag of waters ruptured for purposes of labor and delivery. Baby began experiencing recurrent heart rate abnormalities indicative of fetal distress. Nursing staff negligently continued. Nursing staff also failed to utilize the chain of command when the attending physician failed to respond to phone calls and did not present to the hospital in a timely fashion. Once the attending family practice physician arrived, she failed to recognize fetal distress and did not timely move to a Caesarean Section. Baby died shortly before birth. Decedent is survived by his parents and two older siblings. Co-Counsel with Joseph W. Balesteri.

(2022) Medical Malpractice: Plaintiff tried unsuccessfully to have a child for years and eventually at the age of 45 was able to reach term. During labor, the defendant obstetrician who was also pregnant went to rest while the fetal heart tracings were indeterminant after speaking to an obstetrical resident. Upon returning to the bedside 4 hours later, an elective c-section due to failure to progress was recommended. At birth about an hour later, the newborn was significantly depressed with blood gases and Apgars revealing metabolic acidosis resulting in his death. Upon review of the fetal heart tracings, while the obstetrician was resting and while mom was under the care of a labor and delivery nurse, the strips revealed recurrent variable decelerations requiring communication and expedited delivery. Decedent is survived by his mom and dad. Joseph W. Balesteri as lead counsel, with the assistance of Kathryn L. Conway.

M.L. as Special Administrator of the Estate of M.L., deceased v. Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation

Medical malpractice settlement. 16 day old male survived by his parents, experienced brain injury at birth due to a failure to respond to late decelerations in fetal heart tracings resulting in his death.

Co-counsel with Joseph W. Balesteri.

Deft nursing home abused and neglected plaintiff age 64 and a Alzheimer’s patient, causing her to suffer malnourishment, dehydration, multiple stage IV pressure ulcers on her hip and lower back and death in November 2002. (2008)

D.T. as Special Administrator of the Estate of C.T., Deceased, v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital; Robert Kaiser, M.D.

Medical Malpractice: 44 year old male presented to the Emergency Room at Ingalls Memorial Hospital complaining of abdominal pain. Plaintiff was placed on routine IV fluids and was admitted to the medical surgical floor with a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis, and possible small bowl obstruction. Defendant doctor recommended that pain medications be increased; CT Scan of the abdomen and pelvis with oral contrast. Plaintiff died the next day as a result of defendants’ failure to aggressively resuscitate Plaintiff with fluids and from the CT scan with contrast further which further compromised Plaintiff’s kidneys. Plaintiff died leaving a minor daughter. Co-Counsel with Larry Rogers, Jr.

K.L. v. A Local Hospital (Cook County)

(2023) Medical Malpractice/Birth Injury/Wrongful Death: Immediately after birth, Plaintiff’s newborn daughter required breathing assistance due to a nuchal cord (the umbilical cord around the baby’s neck as she progressed down the birth canal). A pediatric team was standing by at delivery and made two failed attempts to intubate the newborn baby. A neonatal team was called for additional resuscitative efforts and in the interim oxygenation by laryngeal mask airway was not attempted. After intubation, the baby’s heart rate never improved. Plaintiff’s experts believed that the endotracheal tube was not properly placed. Eleven minutes after being pronounced, the baby was noted to still be breathing. Resuscitation efforts were then re-started. She was again pronounced later that day. Decedent is survived by her parents. Co-Counsel with Kathryn L. Conway.

Settlement: $2,500,000.00

Medical Malpractice/Birth Injury/Wrongful Death: Following an induction of labor on January 19, 2021, the baby’s fetal heart rate tracings were initially normal. However, over the course of the next two days, the tracings became abnormal as did the mother’s contraction pattern. Pitocin administration continued despite the presence of abnormal tracings, without intervention from the medical providers, which included attending physicians, resident physicians, and nurses. According to Plaintiff’s experts, a c-section should have been performed on the afternoon of January 20th or the early morning of January 21st, based on the irregular and problematic heart rate tracings. Instead, a crash c-section was performed in the mid-morning of January 21st. The baby was born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and died on the same day of her birth. She is survived by her parents.

D. v. University of Chicago Hospitals

(2016) Medical malpractice/wrongful death: In June of 2014, Decedent was treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center’s emergency room and was discharged without being informed that she had a mass in her right lung. 9 months later, in March of 2015, Decedent was diagnosed with a large right lung mass and ultimately died on July 28, 2015 at the age of 80. Decedent is survived by her husband and three adult children.

In July 2003, Mr. Power, along with Tom Siracusa, represented the family of a terminally ill lymphoma patient who developed bedsores during his hospitalization. The jury awarded the family $2,500,000.00 after a two-week trial. In November 2002, Mr. Power and Mr. Siracusa settled a medical malpractice case on behalf of the family of a patient in whom the defendants failed to diagnose and timely treat a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. One and one-half weeks into the trial, the defendants offered $1.5 million, a substantial increase over their pretrial offer of $200,000.00. Education

I.R. v. Local Suburban Hospital and Nurse Anesthetist

(2024) Medical negligence/wrongful death: 76 year-old male presented Chicagoland area community hospital for purposes of an elective laminectomy to address his back pain. Anesthesia management was provided by a Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) and no anesthesiologist or other medical doctor was involved in anesthesia care. The CRNA did not recognize intraoperative vital sign abnormalities, did not communicate the abnormalities to the in-house anesthesiologist(s), and did not intervene to correct and improve the vital sign trends. Inappropriate dosing of anesthetic agents was utilized throughout surgery, which resulted in deterioration of the patient’s blood pressure and a cardiopulmonary arrest. Plaintiff alleged that lack of physician oversight and CRNA mismanagement caused the patient’s death. Co-counsel with Kathryn L. Conway.