Medical Malpractice/Brain Injury: While recovering from burns to 35% of her body, the minor plaintiff (11 months) was negligently provided two boluses of a medication called Albumin resulting in brain damage.

F.M. v. A Local Community Hospital, Michael J. Riemaier, M.D., and Associates for Women’s Healthcare

(2021) Medical Malpractice: Mom was a gestational diabetic who was advised to deliver her son in the 39th week gestation by a maternal fetal medicine consultant. Her prenatal care was provided by a midwife who was scheduled to deliver her son. After monitoring, cervical ripening and induction, the mid-wife and her supervising obstetrician determined that no cervical change was occurring and mom could go home to return in a few days for another induction (unless she went into labor in the interim). Plaintiff’s experts believe it was unsafe for mom to go home in light of her gestational diabetic risks to herself and her son and his large size as well as abnormalities they identified on fetal heart tracings during the initial scheduled induction. When mom returned, she was allowed to labor for hours prior to birth despite additional abnormalities on fetal heart tracings. Baby was born with imaging suggestive of an older brain injury and an acute brain injury. The defense argued that injury to the fetal brain occurred in the first trimester and thereafter. The midwife and supervising obstetrician were not employees of the local community hospital. The minor has spastic cerebral palsy and a major seizure disorder.

C. v. Thorek Memorial Hospital

Medical Malpractice: The Plaintiff, 51 year old man, experienced quadriplegia following cervical disc surgery due to failure of nurses to communicate post-operative neurologic changes due to spinal cord compression to his neurosurgeon in a timely fashion.

T. v. LaGrange Memorial Hospital

Medical Malpractice: A 36-year-old man became paralyzed on his left side as a result of a stroke. His family physician and emergency room doctor were found to be negligent in failing to diagnose subacute bacterial endocarditis. This is the largest medical negligence verdict in Illinois history and the largest in the U.S. in 1991 according to the National Law Journal. This verdict was reduced $2,238,141.00 for economic damages awarded above the present cash value of lost earnings and future attendant care needs found in the evidence or requested by plaintiff at trial. At the time this case was the largest verdict ever affirmed on appeal in Illinois.

JURY VERDICT: $18,500,000.00

Offer: $200,000.00

Affirmed on Appeal 92-2262 268 Ill.App.3d 1051, 645 N.E.2d 284 (1994).

R. v. Trinity Hospital

This case involved a pregnant mother who presented to Trinity Hospital shortly after midnight on January 1, 1995, with an elevated systolic blood pressure, edema and protein in her urine. The nurses as well as the physician, Dr. Everett A. White, failed to diagnose preeclampsia according to plaintiffs’ experts. At the time of her presentation to Trinity, the plaintiff’s mother was 37 weeks pregnant and in labor. She labored from approximately midnight on

January 1st until 12:45 p.m. when she had an eclamptic seizure. Her child, R., was delivered at 1:19 p.m. with very low APGARS and a cord blood gas indicating she suffered from hypoxia and ischemia. She remained depressed for approximately thirty-six more minutes due to the failure to adequately resuscitate her. As a result, R. sustained brain damage and is currently institutionalized.

The defendants denied that they were negligent, denied that R.’s mother was preeclamptic and instead have suggested she suffered a seizure as a result of an enterovirus which they claimed was found in the placenta. The defense alleged this enterovirus attacks newborns and, in fact, was responsible for aseptic meningitis evidenced by elevated white blood cell count in the cerebral spinal fluid of R. as well as abnormalities in the placenta. It was the defendants’ position that this enterovirus was the sole proximate cause of R.’s problem and was untreatable.

K. vs. Lutheran General Hospital, et al

Minor Plaintiff was born with a heart that was not formed properly. Doctors picked up an irregular heart beat prior to her birth. Plaintiff alleges Defendant doctors failed to properly admit her into the hospital and failed to properly monitor her resulting in her death at approximately 8 months of age.

Medical Malpractice/Brain Injury: Doctors at Christ Hospital Medical Center did not monitor M.’s anticoagulant treatment closely enough during rehabilitation treatment in 1998. She suffered a heart attack, which left her permanently brain damaged.

On March 27, 1997, 8 month old K. had a malfunction of his ventricular shunt in place since one month of age for congenital hydrocephalus. He had undergone shunt revision in January. The revision was performed by a resident despite the family’s request for an attending neurosurgical physician. Upon surgical intervention in March, a portion of the shunt was found to have broken away and lodged in the frontal lobe. The shunt failure was attributed by Plaintiff to an improper surgical technique resulting in a cut and separation of the shunt. The child suffered severe brain damage as a result.

On August 30, 2019, plaintiff arrived at the undisclosed defendant’s hospital with complaints of severe stomach pain. Plaintiff entered the hospital on July 30 th at approximately 9:02 am. Throughout the day the plaintiff had complaints of severe abdominal pain; chills needing a blanket, increasing tachycardia and an abnormal abdominal CT scan that needed further investigation. Plaintiff was noted to be constantly moaning and in extreme pain. On July 31 st at 3:30 pm, plaintiff was first seen by the gastroenterology department. On July 31 st at 5:15 pm, the plaintiff was evaluated by a surgeon who diagnosed the plaintiff as being septic. The first antibiotics the plaintiff received was on July 31 st at 6:39 pm, 33 hours from when plaintiff entered the emergency department. Emergency abdominal surgery was performed at which time Strep A was found in the plaintiff’s stomach and his stomach was necrosed. The plaintiff subsequently developed ischemia in his right lower extremity due to septic shock. The Plaintiff alleges that the defendants failed to timely diagnose and treat a rare progressing infection in the Plaintiff from 9:03 am on July 30 th until 5:45 pm on July 31 st when he was first diagnosed. The plaintiff further alleges that the defendants failed to timely diagnose and treat an acute abdomen. This $17 million dollar result is the highest reported settlement or verdict in Winnebago County for a personal injury case.

Mom’s active phase of labor was less than two hours when Dr. Thorpe placed a vacuum on the baby’s head in an effort to extricate him without maternal or fetal threat. The initial cup used was a Kiwi Pro Cup, which is designed for occiput anterior positioning, however the fetal head position was occiput posterior. The cup popped-off and Dr. Thorpe next applied a Kiwi Omni cup which also popped-off after traction. The cups were placed at 0 to +1 station (mid-pelvis) and were not properly positioned at the flexion point. Because of vacuum use, the baby suffered a focal arterial stroke due to occlusion of blood flow in the right middle cerebral artery. The minor plaintiff is disabled and has permanent and severe injuries.