Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

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.

Continue reading "Cosmetic Surgery On Patients By Non-Doctors - Yes It Happens" »

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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