Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

The Los Angeles county coroner's office recently issued a subpoena for Whitney Houston's medical and pharmacy records. This request is not surprising. After all, Houston is the latest celebrity suspected of dying from complications related to prescription drugs. With Houston's death, prescription medication bottles were found in the singer's hotel room where she was found unconscious in a bathtub filled with water. The subpoena for medical and pharmacy records was likely initiated to determine, in part, whether any doctors and/or pharmacists were improperly supplying Houston with prescription drugs.

Initial reports indicate the list of medications found in Houston's hotel included alprazolam (Xanax), ibuprofen (Midol), and amoxicillin. Following the death of Anna Nicole Smith, her doctor was found liable for improperly supplying the actress with prescription drugs. More recently, Michael Jackson former physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for improperly administering the drug propofol, used almost exclusively during surgery, to help the singer sleep at home.

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The mother of a young boy filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut alleging their pediatrician failed to diagnose bacterial meningitis resulting in the loss of her son's eyesight. The lawsuit alleges the boy's mother took her son, then 7-years-old, to their pediatrician complaining of a severe headache. The pediatrician purportedly diagnosed the boy with an ear infection. Even after several additional visits with worsening symptoms over the next few days, the pediatrician did not send the boy to the ER where, it is alleged, a spinal tap would have revealed meningitis and prompted immediate treatment to halt the disease. Instead, the boy was not sent to the ER until it was too late after he went into a comma while home, resulting in blindness and other injuries.

Meningitis is a potentially life-threatening condition, particularly if bacterial, which causes inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain or spinal cord. If not treated in a timely fashion by doctors, bacterial meningitis can rapidly progress resulting in permanent brain damage or even death. Normally a complication of that occurs in the blood stream, meningitis can directly decrease the ability of the brain to protect itself from blood contamination. When this brain barrier is invaded by meningitis, infectious organisms invade triggering an inflammatory response. As this inflammatory response increases, brain tissue can begin to swell causing decreased blood flow to vital areas of the brain.

The signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis vary depending upon age. In children older than one, classic signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis may include one or more of the following: headache, nausea, vomiting, increased sensitivity to light, fever, altered mental status, lethargy, seizure activity, and neck stiffness or pain among others. For viral meningitis, the most common symptoms resemble those of the flu such as fever, muscle aches, cough and headache.

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Hospital-acquired infections are a serious problem in this country. Usually preventable, these infections routinely lead to unnecessary harm to patients, avoidable healthcare costs and needless medical malpractice lawsuits. Currently, 1 in 20 patients will develop a hospital-acquired infection while hospitalized in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control And Prevention, hospital-acquired infections cause and/or contribute to 99,000 deaths a year. These infections cost the healthcare system billions of dollars a year. Medical experts have concluded that most hospital-acquired infections are preventable. Recently, the federal government, through the Department of Health And Human Services, has launched a bold initiative, seeking to reduce hospital-infections by 40% over the next two years.

A hospital-acquired infection is an infection that a patient develops in a hospital usually from poor hygiene or sanitization practices by hospital staff. These infections can come from a variety of sources. Central lines, urinary catheters, bedsores, blood stream, and surgical sites are just a few examples from which hospital-acquired infections can develop. These infections can lead to serious medical complications and, on occasion, wrongful death.

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Many of us have seen a handwritten prescription by a doctor and wondered how anyone can read the writing. In most instances, the pharmacist is able to decipher the writing or they will call the doctor's office for clarification. However, poor penmanship by doctors can lead to medical malpractice, including medication errors. In fact, there have been many medical malpractice lawsuits where a patient died as a result of a medication error from a doctor's poor penmanship.

A well-known example of how a doctor's poor handwriting can lead to tragedy occurred in Texas over a decade ago. Because of a doctor's poor penmanship, a pharmacist filled Pendil (a blood pressure medication) rather than Isordil (a medication for heart pain). As a result, a Texas wife lost her husband when he ingested the wrong medication, suffered a heart attack, and died. After she filed a medical malpractice suit, the jury determined the doctor's poor penmanship caused the medication error which, ultimately, lead to her husband's death. Thus, the jury's sole basis for finding the doctor negligent was his poor handwriting.

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As with any cancer diagnosis, patients who are told they have breast cancer are frightened and need information. The best person to provide this information is their doctor. The patient's doctor must educate the patient about their condition and available treatment options including surgery. After all, informed consent must be more than signature on a consent form the day of surgery. However, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, half of early-stage breast cancer survivors lacked basic information about their disease and treatment options. As a result, the study concluded many doctors fail to provide their breast cancer patients valuable information necessary for them to make an informed decision about their treatment options. As a medical malpractice lawyer, I have handled my share of informed consent cases. However, I was even surprised by the results of this study showing that many doctors, perhaps close to half, fail to provide their patients critical information they need to make an informed decision about their breast cancer treatment options.

Lead by lead researcher, Dr. Clara N. Lee of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, the retrospective study evaluated the decision making process of early stage breast cancer patients regarding surgical treatment. Surveys were mailed out to adult women with a history of early-stage invasive breast cancer treated at one of four academic medical centers: The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; University of California, San Francisco; and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Based on answers to basic questions about their disease and treatment options, patients answered only half their questions right (52%), demonstrating these patients had a large knowledge gap regarding their disease and treatment choices.

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Patients are increasingly turning to Ambulatory Surgical Centers (or ASCs) for surgical procedures performed outside of the traditional hospital setting. There are several benefits to ASCs. They are generally less expensive than hospital surgery's, permit patients to go home the same day of surgery, and are often more luxurious than hospital. Today, 65% of all surgeries are now outpatient making ASCs a popular alternative to hospital surgeries. However, ASCs do have some drawbacks. One significant shortcoming to ASC is their ability to manage serious anesthesia errors and complications which are generally more dangerous outside of a hospital.

With virtually all same-day surgery procedures, the most significant risk is from the anesthesia. Although there are many forms of anesthesia, general anesthesia poses the greatest risk of serious injury or wrongful death. Indeed, most medical malpractice lawsuits stemming from anesthesia error involve general anesthesia. Common general anesthesia complications are from aspiration, changes in vital signs, and adverse reactions to anesthetic.

Regarding adverse anesthetic reactions, the most significant and potentially fatal condition that can develop is called malignant hyperthermia (or MH). This occurs when a patient's body temperature rapidly increases and causes muscle rigidity. With proper management, many patients will experience a full recovery. Without proper management, patients can and do die from MH.

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On March 28, 2011, seventeen-year old Jennifer Olenick went in for a routine wisdom tooth extraction. During the procedure while under anesthesia, she began experiencing bradycardia in which her heart rate began to slow. Jennifer's oral surgeon and anesthesiologist allegedly failed to correct the problem and her condition worsened. Jennifer then went into cardiac arrest and later died from complications related to an apparent anesthesia error. Jennifer's family has now filed a civil medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against the anesthesiologist and oral surgeon involved in the wisdom tooth extraction.

The medical malpractice suite alleges doctors failed to properly monitor the teen while under anesthesia and failed to properly resuscitate her after her heart rate dropped to 40 beats per minute. The lawsuit further alleges that as a result of the doctors' medical negligence, Jennifer suffered irreversible brain damage. The irreversible brain damage ultimately led to Jennifer's death ten days later. According to the Chief Medical Examiner, the central cause of Jennifer's death was hypoxia (or oxygen deprivation) that occurred while under anesthesia.

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When a child is admitted to a hospital, some will experience an adverse medical event in the hospital. An adverse medical event is any harm to a patient as a result of medical care. Of those adverse events, 60% are preventable according to a recent Canadian investigation. A preventable medical mistake is one where medical malpractice occurred, meaning the care provided fell below the standard of care. Despite these adverse events at children's hospitals, most are not even recorded in the child's medical chart.

The Canadian Medical Journal recently published an investigation into adverse events involving children at children's hospitals. The purpose of the investigation was to determine if Canada's adverse event reporting system incorporating families would result in any changes reported by healthcare professionals. The belief was that medical professionals would be more likely to report adverse events involving hospitalized children if parents were also documenting these events. However, the investigation showed medical professionals failed to report the overwhelming majority of adverse events involving children.

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Over ten years ago, the Florida legislature passed a statute capping or limiting non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases to $500,000. Wrongful death cases are capped at $1 million. The Florida Supreme Court, like many other state supreme courts before it, is asked to decide whether its cap on damages is constitutional under its state constitution.

In personal injury and medical malpractice cases, a plaintiff may recover both economic damages and non-economic damages. When someone suffers a serious personal injury, they must usually undergo extensive medical treatment and miss considerable time from work. Economic damages are used to recover these financial losses. However, the most significant damages in a serious injury case are often non-economic damages such as when someone suffers a spinal cord injury, a brain injury, or birth injury. In those instances, a plaintiff may seek compensation for pain and suffering and disability or loss of a normal life. In wrongful death cases, a surviving spouse or child is entitled to compensation for the loss of companionship, support, and affection they lost because their parent and/or spouse is gone.

The cornerstone of the tort reform movement is to cap non-economic damages in personal injury, medical negligence, and wrongful death cases. There are various justifications given by tort reformers for caps. The primary justifications given is that caps on damages purportedly prevent frivolous lawsuits, prevent runaway jury verdicts, reduce healthcare costs, and/or prevent doctors from fleeing to states with caps on damages.

Continue reading "Another State Supreme Court Decides Caps On Damages " »

The Illinois Department of Public Health (or IDPH) was formed "to regulate medical practitioners." Medical practitioners include doctors and hospitals. The IDPH's is "responsible for protecting the state's 12.4 million residents...through prevention and control of disease and injury." Despite these obligations, the IDPH has failed to investigate 85% of hospital complaints it received last year including complaints of serious patient abuse and death.

Of the hospital complaints received by the IDPH, one included a bacterial infection that spread through Harrisburg Medical Center and killed at least one patient. During this time, nurses and doctors in that hospital reportedly failed to wear protective gloves and gowns--basic precautions used to reduce the spread of serious infection. In response, the IDPH declined to investigate. At Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, the IDPH received a complaint a nurse misused an IV machine, resulting in a near fatal medication error. In response, the IDPH declined to investigate. In addition, the IDPH received complaints that patients at Greater Peoria Specialty Hospital were being left in their own feces and, as a result, developed dangerous infections. Once again, the IDPH declined to investigate.

Federal law requires that complaints of serious personal harm or death in hospitals be investigated within 48 hours. This law applies to all states, including Illinois. Despite these federal requirements, the IDPH usually never conducted any investigation into complaints of serious personal injury or wrongful death at anytime--let alone within 48 hours.

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Last September, I wrote about the medical dangers of cheap cosmetic surgery by unqualified doctors. The article discussed the benefits of choosing a board certified cosmetic surgeon compared to often lesser-trained doctors. The article focused on differences among doctors--the key word being doctors. Unfortunately, there are some individuals performing cosmetic surgery on patients who are not even doctors. As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, I cannot stress enough the surgical error risks associated with individuals performing surgery who are not licensed to practice medicine. A cheap cosmetic procedure is no bargain if you do not survive.

In order to become a licensed physician in the United States, extensive medical education and training is required. Following a four-year undergraduate degree, students wishing to become medical doctors must complete fours of education at medical school. After medical school, students earn their doctor of medicine. However, before practicing medicine on their own, these doctors must complete additional training in a three to seven year residency program under the supervision of a senior physician educator. Doctors completing their residency program may then practice medicine on their own although they have the option to receive additional training in a fellowship program. Fellowship trained physicians receive one to three years of additional training in a subspecialty.

Despite the fact becoming a doctor in the US requires extensive medical training, there are some who fraudulently hold themselves out as doctors even though they are not. Some of these people even perform medical procedures like plastic surgery--not only in third world countries--but right here in the United States. Consider the just one city, Las Vegas, Nevada. In the last two years, three people have been charged with performing cosmetic surgeries on patients in Las Vegas without a medical license.

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After nine hours of deliberation, the jury in the involuntary manslaughter trial against Michael Jackson's doctor reached their verdict. Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty of gross medical negligence in Jackson's death. As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, I was very pleased to see the jury, in my opinion, reached the right verdict.

After six weeks of dramatic testimony, which included overt displays of emotion by Dr. Murray, the doctor showed no emotion as the California jury returned its verdict. Dr. Murray faces up to four years in jail. The judge, in an unusual move, refused to set a bail for Dr. Murray feeling the doctor was a potential flight risk and the risk to others. Instead, Dr. Murray was place in hand cuffs and led out of the courtroom.

Early on in the trial, it was apparent the main issue in the case was whether Dr. Murray caused Jackson's death. After all, there was no credible testimony offered by any expert that would justify Dr. Murray's use of propofol, an anesthesia type drug, in a home setting to help Jackson sleep. The fact Dr. Murray was paid $150,000 a month to give Jackson the drug did not help matters. Dr. Murray's defense team instead focused on blaming Jackson and others for Jackson's death.

Continue reading "Jackson's Doctor Found Guilty Of Involuntary Manslaughter" »

It always seemed unlikely Dr. Conrad Murray would ever testify in his own defense. A cross examination of Dr. Murray would be blistering, as he was paid $150,000 a month by Jackson to give Jackson a dangerous surgically anesthetic to help the pop star sleep. On Tuesday, Dr. Murray made it official. He told the judge in his criminal trial he will not take the stand. Dr. Murray is accused of criminal medical negligence in connection with Michael Jackson's death, though the official charge is involuntary manslaughter. The prosecution and defense had a day off on Wednesday to prepare for closing arguments scheduled for Thursday. After closing arguments, the Judge will instruct the jury on the law. The case is then turned over to the jury to deliberate whether Dr. Murray should be found guilty or innocent. As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, I am eager to see how each side will present their closing arguments and, most importantly, how the jury will decide this fascinating case.

As with a civil medical malpractice case, the prosecution must generally prove Dr. Murray was negligent (albeit criminally) and that his negligence was caused Jackson's death. Unlike a civil case, the prosecution must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt rather than a preponderance of the evidence. The defense does not have to prove anything. They need only demonstrate reasonable doubt on whether Dr. Murray was negligent or whether he caused Jackson's death. As predicted, the primary battle is over whether Dr. Murray caused Jackson's death. After all, none of Dr. Murray's experts seemed to offer credible testimony that it was within the standard of care for Dr. Murray to give Jackson propofol, an anesthesia drug, to help him sleep in his home. Dr. Murray's central defense is that Jackson caused his own death when he allegedly gave himself propofol while Dr. Murray briefly left the room for a bathroom break.

Causation is the relationship between conduct and result. In nearly all cases, causation requires a two-part part analysis. First, was the defendant's conduct the "factual cause" of harm? In other words, but for the defendant's conduct, would the harm have still occurred. If so, the second questions is whether the defendant's conduct was the "legal cause" of the harm? Legal causation generally turns on whether it was "reasonably foreseeable" that the defendant's conduct could cause the harm.

Continue reading "Jackson's Doctor Declines To Testify: Closing Arguments Next" »

There have been many studies over the years measuring the care hospitals provide to patients. Few studies have measured how individual doctors provide medical care. The Wisconsin Collaborative For Healthcare Quality recently revealed the results of their new study that publicly measured the care provided by individual doctors. The results show public disclosure of how individual doctors provide care resulted in improved healthcare by doctors. As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, I am encouraged by these results of this study and would like to see similar public disclosure measures implemented in the future on a broader scale.

The premise of the Wisconsin Collaborative is quite simple: to improve quality healthcare, you must measure it. Led by Professor Geoffrey Lamb of the Medical College of Wisconsin, the latest Collaborative study compared medical care given to diabetic patients by physician practices belonging to the collaborative with the care given by physician in Iowa, South Dakota and national performance measures. The study found an improvement by members in the collaborative in every measure. Dr. Lamb observed "[t]he thing that really impressed me is the people who performed the lowest when they started had the greatest improvement." Simply put, "[t]hey cared where they were in ranking."

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For weeks, Dr. Conrad Murray's defense team has been arguing Dr. Murray did not cause Jackson's death. Instead, the defense has been blaming Jackson himself claiming Jackson gave himself additional propofol when Dr. Murray temporarily left the room. In doing so, the defense has sought to shift blame from Dr. Murray to Jackson claiming Jackson is the cause of his own death. At various points in the trial, the defense has introduced another figure as being at least partially responsible for Jackson's death. That person is Jackson's former dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, I am quite familiar with this defense tactic commonly referred to as the "empty chair" defense.

Although Dr. Murray is on trial for involuntary manslaughter, the case has played out much like a civil medical malpractice trial. Like a civil case, the prosecution must show Dr. Murray deviated from the standard of care and that Dr. Murray's deviation from the standard of care was at least a cause of Jackson's death. In some malpractice cases, the defense will seek to blame another person who is not a defendant in the lawsuit. The defense may literally, if not figuratively, point to an empty chair saying the person is responsible for the malpractice is not even in this courtroom. This is commonly referred to as the "empty chair" defense. With this tactic, the defense seeks to avoid responsibility by shifting blame from their client to someone not a party to the lawsuit. In the trial against Dr. Murray, his defense lawyers are blaming Jackson and another doctor, Dr. Arnold Klein.

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