H. v. Midwest Center for Women’s Healthcare, Ltd., et al.

After laboring, a maternal fever developed and over the next two hours abnormal heart tracing were present which resulted in a stillbirth. Defendants failed to timely perform a c-section to avoid fetal injury. The parents were the sole heirs. Co-counsel with Joseph W. Balesteri.

Medical Malpractice/Wrongful Death: Plaintiff’s husband presented to a local community hospital with numerous injuries to his chest and abdomen, including multiple vertebral and rib fractures, following an unwitnessed motorcycle crash. Imaging was performed which identified small bilateral pneumothoraces. The emergency room physician did not insert chest tubes prior to transferring the patient to the nearest trauma center for a higher level of care and Decedent was pronounced dead shortly after arrival to the trauma center. An autopsy was not performed. Plaintiff contended Decedent died as a result of a tension pneumothorax. Defendants argued that cause of death could not be determined in the absence of an autopsy and that Decedent most likely died from bleeding or other organ injury caused by the motorcycle crash. Decedent was survived by his wife.

(2020) Medical Malpractice: Seventy-eight-year-old female suffered an embolic stroke at her home and was not found until 36-48 hours later. Upon arrival and assessment, significant carotid disease was identified as the etiology. Her PCP records revealed a carotid artery bruit that was never properly assessed and/or worked up during yearly office visits for many years preceding her stroke. As a result of her stroke, she suffered neurologic injury as well as orthopedic injury from her fall.

(2021) Medical Malpractice: Mom presented for care at 33 2/7 weeks gestation to the labor and delivery triage at a Local Academic Medical Center. She had been diagnosed during her pregnancy with preeclampsia. The healthcare providers determined due to her blood pressure, that she should remain hospitalized and would be induced at 34 weeks. She was transitioned back and forth from the antepartum unit to the labor and delivery unit during the course of her stay twice. She received two doses of steroids to assist with fetal lung maturity before 34 weeks gestation. Plaintiff’s experts believe that she should have remained on a continuous fetal monitor and should not have been transferred back to the antepartum unit in light of abnormalities on the fetal heart tracings and further, that there was no reason to wait until 34 weeks for delivery. Ultimately, without continuous fetal monitoring, when a nurse checked on the baby’s heart rate on the antepartum unit there was none. Baby was survived by mom and dad.

Medical Malpractice/Birth Injury: Plaintiffs’ alleged that the decedent physician failed to recognize the presence of a shoulder dystocia, despite numerous risk factors including the application of a vacuum at a high station, and applied excessive downward traction in order to effectuate the delivery, thereby causing the baby to supper a permanent brachial plexus injury. Defendants disputed the presence of a shoulder dystocia and maintained that Plaintiff’s injuries were the result of the internal forces of labor.

Medical Malpractice/ Wrongful Death: The Decedent died from a pulmonary embolism eight days after undergoing surgery at Westlake Hospital allegedly because she did not receive appropriate anticoagulation medication post-operatively. Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant care providers failed to appreciate the patient’s risk factors for developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism. Defense argued that pharmacologic intervention was not necessary because the patient was ambulating adequately post-operatively

H.C. and H.S., as Co-Executors of the Estate of P.B., Deceased, v. Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, d/b/a The Northwestern Medical Group, No. 16 L 010392 (Cook County)

(2016) Medical Malpractice: 63 year old female passed away as a result of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung with metastasis to the liver, bones and skull. On May 29, 2013, a surveillance chest CT scan was ordered by a Northwestern Faculty Foundation employee. The May 29, 2013 CT result revealed a 10 mm right upper lobe speculated nodule documented as suspicious for primary lung cancer per interpreting radiologist. Another annual CT scan was performed on September 11, 2014. The 2014 scan revealed that the 2013 mass had grown to 19 mm and a new mass in the middle of the right lung was now present. A bronchoscopy followed on September 29, 2014 which revealed the diagnosis – squamous cell carcinoma. Over the next three months, P.B. suffered the painful and disabling consequences of metastasis and passed away a couple of days short of Christmas 2014. She was survived by seven brothers and sisters. Co-Counsel with Joseph A. Power, Jr.

M.B. v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital

(2019) Medical Malpractice: 44-year-old male presented to Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department the morning of March 31, 2014 with complaints of fever, chills and body aches. He was discharged with instructions to return if his condition worsened. He returned that evening with excruciating headache (10 out of 10 intensity). He was diagnosed with presumptive bacterial meningitis and treated. Unfortunately, he suffered cardiopulmonary arrest as a result of septic shock and passed away. Had he been administered proper antibiotics the morning of March 31, 2014, he would not have suffered septic shock nor his death per Plaintiff’s consultants. He was survived by his parents and two adult siblings. Co-counsel with Joseph A. Power Jr.

Result: $2,000,000.00

JS, Individually and as Independent Executor of the Estate of LS, Deceased v. SwedishAmerican Hospital, et al.

(2016) Medical Malpractice: 48 year old female presented to her internist with complaints of left arm numbness, pain and lack of blood pressure in her left arm which she had sought treatment for the previous day in an emergency department out-of-state. Over the next approximate 9 months the internist did not seek to identify the etiology of her blood pressure loss in her left arm despite continued numbness. Plaintiff’s decedent experienced embolization of clot to her head and neck at that time which plaintiff argued was the source (embolization from her aortic arch) of her left arm complaints nine months previous. Decedent was survived by her husband and three adult children.

Result: $2,000,000.00

TJR, Individually and as Independent Administrator of the Estate of JJ, Deceased v. The University of Chicago Medical Center

(2014) Medical Malpractice: 21 year old African-American male was shot in the head and a few months later, while at home, experienced episodes of agitation and confusion. He was taken to The University of Chicago where he was hospitalized for a few weeks, trying to identify the cause. After ruling out a number of conditions, healthcare providers diagnosed acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). One of the treatments for ADEM is therapeutic plasma exchanges, known as PLEX therapy. PLEX therapy has the side effect of prolonging clotting times as blood factors and other impurities are removed through the plasma exchange process. After receiving his fourth and final PLEX therapy, the large bore Quinton catheter in his right internal jugular was removed. This decision violated the standard of care according to Plaintiff’s experts as it exposed the patient to significant bleeding and the potential for air embolism. Here, coughing and bleeding occurred over the next few hours. Later in the evening a Code event occurred followed hours later by another Code event and the patient’s death. Plaintiff contended that air embolism took place when the Quinton catheter was removed, allowing air to be entrapped as continued bleeding occurred from the internal jugular vein resulting in the patient coughing, sweating and ultimately experiencing radiographic changes in his lungs. Patient is survived by his mother and father and three half sisters and a half brother.Result: $2,000,000.00