Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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A Texas state appellate court has held that a plaintiff expert’s report was adequate in a case brought by the parents whose child died after receiving inadequate treatment for a respiratory infection. Luz Del Carmen Rodriguez and Victor Velazquez took their infant son to the office of a pediatrician, Dr. Satbir Chhina.

A nurse practitioner diagnosed the baby as having respiratory syncytial virus and prescribed Tylenol and nebulizer treatments. Dr. Chhina later signed off on the treatment plan that was presented to him by the nurse practitioner. However, the next day, the baby became unresponsive. He was transferred to a hospital, where he died of cardio-pulmonary arrest. An autopsy revealed that the child’s death resulted from sepsis originating from a bacterial infection.

Rodriguez and Velazquez sued Dr. Chhina and the nurse practitioner, alleging medical negligence. The plaintiffs offered the expert report of Dr. Armando Correa, a board-certified pediatrician who specialized in pediatric infectious disease.
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Latosha Evans, 17, a heart transplant recipient, went to Children’s Hospital to undergo a cardiac catheterization to correct a fractured stent in her ascending aorta.

After this procedure, which lasted approximately three hours, Latosha was transferred to the facility’s post-anesthesia care unit. A report from a neurology consultation allegedly wrote in the chart that Latosha had possible right hemiparesis; however, neither the attending nursing nor medical staff initiated a stroke protocol or requested a complete neurological assessment.

Hemiparesis is a partial weakness on one side of the body. It can affect either the left or right side of the body. The weakness can involve the arms, hands, legs, face or a combination of all. Almost 80% of stroke survivors experience hemiparesis, making it one of the most common effects of a stroke.
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Ms. Doe, 47, had a family history of breast cancer. When she discovered a mass in her right breast, she consulted with Dr. Roe, a family practice physician. The doctor aspirated the mass with an 18-gauge needle but did not send the aspiration collection to cytology for analysis.

Cytology is the examination of cells from a patient’s body under a microscope to determine the presence of disease or illness. Instead, Dr. Roe referred Ms. Doe for a mammogram and ultrasound, which reported the presence of a hematoma.

Ms. Doe’s mass continued to grow. Dr. Roe allegedly attributed this to an enlarging hematoma during Ms. Doe’s multiple later visits.
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Ms. Doe, age 43, was hospitalized and treated for sepsis after she underwent laparoscopic surgery. Shortly after her release from the hospital, Ms. Doe experienced severe shortness of breath, tachycardia and lower back pain.

Ms. Doe met twice with Dr. Roe, an infectious disease specialist, who ordered a chest X-ray, which he deemed to be reassuring.

The same week, Ms. Doe suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism. She had been an office manager earning approximately $62,000 per year and is survived by her husband and a minor son.
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The plaintiff, Stephan Urbaniak,was prescribed and took a drug called Reglan for six years. He developed severe movement disorders. The prescribing physician, Dr. John Ross, admits that he was unaware of the risk of developing these movement disorders from long-term use of this prescription drug.

By operation of the “learned intermediary doctrine,” the pharmacy cannot be held liable for choosing not to verbally warn the plaintiff or his physician about the medical risks associated with long-term use of Reglan.

There is no specific reason that the pharmacy could have known about that, which would have made plaintiff specifically someone who could not be treated with Reglan longer than 12 weeks.
Accordingly, the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the dismissal of the lawsuit against the pharmacy and physician.
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After Ernestine Wilson’s 23-year-old son Brian Curry died from a saddle pulmonary embolism (a blood clot that blocked the large pulmonary artery straddling his lungs), she sued emergency room physician Dr. Eric Moon and Chicago’s St. Bernard Hospital. She claimed that the doctor was negligent in choosing not to diagnose and treat her son’s condition and that the hospital was also liable because of its principal-agent relationship with the doctor. Dr. Moon denied negligence and the hospital moved for summary judgment on the ground that the doctor was an independent contractor.

Wilson reached a settlement with the hospital, but at the trial six weeks later, the doctor called the hospital’s retained expert in pulmonary medicine. The witness testified that Brian’s signs and symptoms did not suggest pulmonary embolism and that what subsequently occurred was a sudden and unsurvivable medical condition regardless of the doctor’s efforts.

Dr. Moon generally adopted the hospital’s expert opinions and thus was not required to submit a second 213(f)(3) disclosure containing all of the same information of an earlier disclosure once the hospital settled with Wilson for the plaintiff.
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In August 2013, Alexis Dameron underwent surgery at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center where she claimed to have sustained injuries due to medical negligence. She filed a medical malpractice case against Mercy and various employees at the hospital on Nov. 6, 2014.

During discovery, she disclosed that Dr. David Preston would be testifying as an expert witness, presenting evidence drawn from an electromyogram and EMG study yet to be performed. The EMG was to take place on June 1, 2017, but Dr. Preston’s report was not included in the record.

Dameron moved to designate Dr. Preston a “nontestifying expert consultant,” stating that Dr. Preston’s designation as a testifying expert witness had been “inadvertent.”
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This interlocutory appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court was dismissed. A supervisory order was entered remanding the case back to the trial court.

The plaintiff in this case filed a wrongful death and survival action lawsuit alleging medical malpractice of the defendant Union Health Service. The defendant alleged immunity under Section 26 of the Voluntary Health Services Plans Act. The Circuit Court of Cook County judge denied defendant’s Section 2-619 motion on the grounds that a 1988 amendment to Section 26 is unconstitutional.

The denial of the motion to dismiss is an interlocutory ruling, and it was found not to be subject to review by the Supreme Court under Rule 302(a)(1).
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This case arises out of a medical malpractice lawsuit alleged to have been prompted by the negligence of a radiologist. Courtney Webster had a CT scan performed at CDI Indiana LLC‘s diagnostic imaging facility. The radiologist, an independent contractor hired by Medical Scanning Consultants, missed identifying and diagnosing the cancer, which then remained untreated for over a year before being diagnosed.

Webster and her husband, Brian Webster, sued CDI, which in turn insisted that the Websters could not hold it liable because CDI did not directly employ the radiologist who was at fault for not recognizing the cancer.

The district court rejected that argument and applied the law of apparent agency, which instructs that a medical provider is liable if a patient reasonably relied on its apparent authority over the wrongdoer.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit of Chicago held that a prior acts exclusion under an insurance policy issued by a professional liability insurer to a medical-practice insurer excluded coverage. The exclusion was ruled legal only if the medical-malpractice insurer committed an actual wrongful act, not just if it was accused of committing such an act.

MedPro, the insured medical malpractice carrier in this case, was represented by Clyde & Co., LLP of Washington, D.C. The professional liability insurer was American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co. (AISLIC).

MedPro issued medical-malpractice coverage to Dr. Benny Phillips, subject to a $200,000 liability limit.
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