Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Earlier this month, a Chicago couple settled a tragic wrongful death case involving their newborn because of a medication error at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. The medication error occurred when the hospital mistakenly gave a newborn an overdose of medicine that was sixty times stronger than intended. As a medical malpractice lawyer experienced in medication error lawsuits, I was pleased to learn that the hospital actually admitted its mistake early on in the case.

In the US, 7,000 people die every year from medication errors. According to one study, 1 in 50 patients who are admitted to a hospital experience a preventable adverse drug reaction. Preventable adverse drug events are not only cause unnecessary harm to patients and, at times, even death, they also are costly to the healthcare system. According one study, preventable adverse drug events cost the healthcare system $2 billion dollars annually. The most common source of medication error is manually programming infusion parameters, such as infusion rate and dosage, incorrectly into the device. This is a type of human error.

On September 6, 2010, Genesis Burket was born prematurely at 24 weeks gestation. The typical gestation period is 40 weeks. In many instances, children born at 24 weeks do not survive but Genesis made remarkable progress in the hospital. Doctors even suggested to the couple they could take their son home in time for Christmas. However, things went tragically wrong before after that.

Continue reading "Malpractice Case Involving Fatal Medication Error Settles For $8.25 Million" »

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.

Continue reading "Subpoena For Medical & Pharmacy Records After Houston's Death No Surprise" »

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.

Continue reading "Poor Penmanship By Doctors Can Lead To Medical Malpractice" »

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.

Continue reading "Hospitals Fail To Chart Most Adverse Events Of Hospitalized Kids " »

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.

Continue reading "Illinois Officials Failed To Investigate Most Hospital Complaints " »

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.

Continue reading "Murray's Defense Continues To Shift Blame For Jackson's Death" »