Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

by

In a Cook County medical malpractice lawsuit, the Illinois Appellate Court recently ruled that a hospital could not be held liable for the potential negligence of one of its independent contractors in Lamb-Rosenfeldt v. Burke Medical Group, 2012 IL App (1st), 101558. The case was brought by the decedent’s daughter, who contended that the defendant doctor contributed to the her mother’s death by failing to timely diagnose her lung cancer.

Lee Lamb began seeing Dr. Kathryn Burke in November 2004. However, Lamb had met Dr. Burke on several previous occasions when Dr. Burke visited the hair salon where Lamb worked. And while Lamb did have her own physician at the time, she would still ask Dr. Burke questions about her medical treatment. It was during the course of those conversations that Dr. Burke became aware of Lamb’s medical history, including her diagnosis of lung cancer in 1996. So when Lamb became dissatisfied with her current primary care physician in 2004, Dr. Burke was the natural choice for a replacement.

When Dr. Burke began treating Lamb in 2004, Lamb was not actively being treated for her lung cancer. However, according to the medical malpractice complaint, Dr. Burke ignored all the warning signs that Lamb’s cancer was recurring: weight loss, frequent coughing, swallowing difficulty, fatigue, and aspiration of food. Lamb was ultimately diagnosed with a recurrence of her lung cancer in February 2006; she died just eight months later in October 2006. The complaint alleged that if Dr. Burke had recognized the signs and symptoms of her lung cancer at an earlier date that Lamb could have survived.

Continue reading

by

For many medical diseases, early detection can drastically improve a patient’s outcome. Therefore, doctors are always working to find new ways to predict who might be at risk for certain diseases, or to prevent people from developing certain diseases. A new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examines what sort of things help reduce the development of colon polyps in men and women.

The study was done at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, located in Nashville, Tennessee. It involved over 5,000 men and women, looking for common trends among those who did not develop colon polyps. While the study did not reveal any link between various behaviors and colon polyps in men, there was a potential risk reducing factor for women.

The study found that women who ate three or more servings of fish per week were 33 percent less likely to develop adenomatous polyps. This finding could be particularly relevant in terms of preventive cancer treatments because adenomatous polyps are likely to become cancerous. Scientists attributed the useful benefits of fish to their high levels of omega-3 fatty acids; animal testing has shown links between omega-3 and anti-cancer effects.

Continue reading

by

As part of an effort to reform Illinois nursing homes, government agencies are attempting to increase their oversight of potential nursing home violations. When the Department of Public Health went to investigate potential nursing home policy violation at an Illinois facility, the Illinois nursing home facility accused the health agency of failing to follow the proper investigation procedures in UDI #10, LLC v. Department of Public Health, No. 1-10-3476 (February 1, 2012).

The nursing home investigation arose after a nursing home patient, herein called R1 to protect his/her identity, died as a result of a choking incident at Pekin Manor. This was the second time R1 had experienced a choking incident in the course of one day. When R1 became unresponsive his wife called a staff member for help. The staff member called the paramedics, but did not perform CPR while waiting for their arrival. R1 was transported to the hospital by the paramedics and ended up dying later that day.

The nursing home facility was operated by UDI #10, LLC (UDI) and had specific policies and procedures in place regarding a similar situation. The policy dictated that a UDI staff member was to stay with R1 and that a staff member was to accompany the paramedics to R1’s room. In addition, the staff member should have performed CPR while awaiting the paramedics’ arrival; the only reason CPR should not have been done was if R1 had a valid do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order in his chart. And while R1 and his wife had signed a DNR order, it was invalid because it was not signed by a doctor.

Continue reading

by

In TV and movie trial dramas, we are always shown a jury hotly debating over the case facts, with one or two jurors holding out against the rest of the jury. However, in Illinois, in order for a jury verdict to stand it needs to be unanimous. This means that if even one of the jurors cannot agree with the rest of the jury, then the judge finds the jury to be deadlocked and declares a mistrial.

This occurred in the Illinois wrongful death lawsuit of Estate of Steven Prehn, deceased v. Dr. Sandeep Amin, University Anesthesiologists S.C., 07 L 1115. After the jury debated for over ten hours over the course of two days it was still unable to reach an unanimous decision. While nine jurors were in favor of the plaintiff, the remaining three jurors were in favor of the defendant doctor.

Prehn involved the death of a 46 year-old father of three from a pain medication overdose. Steven Prehn had visited Dr. Amin, a pain management specialists, at his Rush Pain Center facility with complaints of chronic pain. Dr. Amin prescribed Methadone, an opiate or narcotic medication typically prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. Twenty-six hours after the office visit, Prehn was found dead at his home from a Methadone overdose.

Continue reading

by

As patients, we entrust our health and well-being to our physicians and rely on their expertise to make us well. Perhaps this trust is nowhere more obvious than in Intensive Care Units (ICU), where most patients’ lives are hanging in the balance.
The wrongful death lawsuit of Estate of Tyrone Holliday v. Dr. Stephanie Panush, et al., 06 L 12318, dealt with an ICU patient who died while under the care of various ICU medical staff. Tyrone Holliday was admitted to the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center’s Neuro ICU unit after suffered a stroke in November 2005. The stroke had affected Mr. Holliday’s breathing to the point that he needed to have a tracheostomy tube placed.

The tracheostomy tube would control Mr. Holliday’s breathing; without the tube he was unable to breath on his own. According to the Illinois wrongful death lawsuit filed by Mr. Holliday’s estate, he died as a result of negligent treatment and care related to his tracheostomy tube. The allegations arose after Mr. Holliday’s tracheostomy tube became dislodged just 24 hours after it was placed. Mr. Holliday suffered respiratory arrest and died shortly thereafter.

Continue reading

by

Jury instructions are invaluable in helping jurors make decisions that are in accordance with the law. It is through jury instructions that jurors are able to understand what questions they need to answer and how. Yet when a jury is given incorrect jury instructions it can bias its opinion and result in an unfair outcome.
In the medical malpractice lawsuit of Karen Graham, etc. v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, 2012 IL App (1st) 102609, an Illinois appellate court found that the Cook County jury was given an incorrect jury instruction. The court also found that the improper jury instruction might have influenced the jury’s verdict. As a result, a new medical malpractice trial was ordered, this time with only the correct jury instructions being delivered to the jury.

The case facts in Graham involve the suicide of a 49 year-old woman who had been admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Upon admission to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Marilee Graham was heard expressing regret that she had not died. Another note in her chart stated that she was “falling apart mentally and emotionally” and was still in “severe emotional pain.”

Continue reading

by

For over twenty-five years, Robert Kreisman has been a member of Chicago’s Union League Club and has helped support its motto of “commitment to community and country.” As part of its commitment to examining critical social issues, the Union League Club (ULC) hosted a forum examining the role race plays in access to quality healthcare. “Race and Healthcare: Examining the Disparities” featured a panel of doctors who spoke about their observations of the role of race in Chicago’s healthcare system.

The event was moderated by Dr. Terry Mason. Dr. Mason is currently the Chief Medical Officer of the Cook County Health & Hospital System (CCHHS) and post Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. As moderator, Dr. Mason provided a brief history of the disparity that exists in healthcare delivered to different classes of Americans.

He then introduced the two panelists, Dr. Anthony LoSasso and Dr. Carl Bell, who then spoke to the various government policies and clinical considerations that perpetuate the healthcare disparity. Dr. LoSasso serves as a faculty member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Bell is an internationally recognized author, lecturer, and psychiatrist who advocates for violence prevention among mental health patients.

Continue reading

by

Cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits make up a fair share of medical malpractice lawsuits. However, most of those misdiagnosis lawsuits deal with a delay in diagnosis that results in a fatal outcome for the plaintiff. Whereas in Pamela Chouinard v. Dr. Janis Atkinson, North Shore Pathology Consultants S.C., 08 L 9295, the misdiagnosis claim centered on a false positive cancer diagnosis which led to an unnecessary surgery.

The Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit was brought by Pamela Chouinard following the removal of her thyroid gland. While Chouinard had initially been told the surgery was necessary because she had thyroid cancer, a biopsy taken after the surgery showed her thyroid to be benign and cancer free. Chouinard then sued Dr. Atkinson for misdiagnosing her alleged cancer and causing her to undergo thyroid surgery.

The case begins in July 2006 when 62 year-old Chouinard is found to have an enlarged thyroid gland. In order to determine the cause, she underwent a fine needle aspiration of her thyroid. The results showed multiple nodules on Chouinard’s thyroid, including a cold nodule, which is a common sign of thyroid cancer. Based on the thyroid aspiration results, the reviewing pathologist, Dr. Atkinson, entered a positive finding of malignant cancer of the papillary thyroid.

Continue reading

by

While some doctors are working to create cures for cancer, others are working to create effective solutions to combat the destructive effects of certain types of cancer. Take for example the recent breakthroughs in tissue engineering that allowed doctors to replace the cancerous windpipe of a Baltimore man with a new, synthetic windpipe. While a similar procedure had been performed on a Swedish man, this is the first time an American has undergone such a procedure.

The surgery was possible thanks to the efforts of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini and his colleagues at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. Dr. Macchiarin is the director of the Advanced Center for Translational Regenerative Medicine and has been working in the field of tissue engineering. His goal is to effectively reproduce tissues and organs outside of the body, a field that is undergoing a surge in success thanks to advances in stem cell research.

Christopher Lyles, the 30 year-old Baltimore man who received the synthetic windpipe transplant, had been diagnosed with inoperable tracheal cancer. However, following his transplant surgery, he was quoted telling a New York Times reporter, “I’m just thankful for a second chance at life.”

Continue reading

by

As we enter the short, cold days of winter, we remember the advice our parents gave us as we’d leave the house to brave the cold: bundle up, put on a hat, and zip up your jacket. As we ourselves grow older and become parents, it is important we ensure that our own parents and grandparents receive the best possible care. And while nursing home facilities are created to help facilitate this care, the reality is that not all nursing homes are doing so.

This is why in July 2010, Illinois enacted increased regulations to its Illinois Nursing Home Safety Act (SB3226) (Public Act 96-1372). While Illinois’s Nursing Home Care Act was first signed into law in 1979, the 2010 amendments were aimed at increasing the quality of care and regulations for nursing home facilities.

The changes came after a series of articles in The Chicago Tribune highlighted the gross nursing home abuses going on in Illinois’ nursing home facilities. Because of overcrowding and understaffing problems, many Illinois nursing home residents were housed with potentially dangerous residents. Many nursing homes were accepting residents with criminal records or mental health diagnoses and housing them alongside geriatric residents without providing adequate security measures. As a result, an increased number of nursing home residents were getting abused, not by the staff, but by fellow nursing home residents.

Continue reading