Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

An Oregon jury recently returned a $3 million dollar medical malpractice verdict to a family for the "wrongful birth" of their Down syndrome daughter. The family filed this unusual malpractice lawsuit against Legacy Health claiming the health provider negligently performed prenatal testing during the first trimester, resulting in a false negative finding for Down's syndrome. At trial, the family testified that, although they love their daughter, they would have terminated the pregnancy had they known she would have Down syndrome. Because of the false negative, the jury agreed Legacy Healthy should be responsible for paying the medical, therapeutic, and educational costs needed for the Down syndrome child.

A "wrongful birth" lawsuit is where parents of a congenitally diseased child claim a health provider failed to properly warn them of the risk of conceiving a child with a serious genetic or congenital abnormality. In this type of medical malpractice claim, the parents assert the health provider prevented them from making an informed decision over whether to have a child. In addition, the parents must generally show that had they been advised of the genetic abnormality or risk thereof, they would have terminated the pregnancy. Finally, the parents must prove the damages that result from the wrongful birth. In the Oregon case, the parents sought economic damages needed to care for their Down syndrome child.

Continue reading "Debate Over Malpractice Suits For "Wrongful Birth" Heats Up" »

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.

Continue reading "Poor Communication By Many Doctors To Breast Cancer Patients" »