Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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A Cook County jury found in favor of the estate of a 52 year-old Illinois woman who died of sepsis and multi-organ failure during her admission to Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, Illinois. The estate claimed that Illinois medical negligence occurred when the hospital failed to recognize and respond to the decedent’s early signs and symptoms of sepsis, which led to her ultimate demise. The jury awarded $500,000 against the hospital in Estate of Hackl v. Advocate Health & Hospitals Corp., et al., 08 L 7880, an Illinois medical malpractice case that highlights the disastrous effects that can occur when there is a communication breakdown in a hospital setting.

The decedent presented to the emergency room at Good Shepherd Hospital, a hospital in Chicago’s northwest suburbs that is affiliated with Advocate Health Care. At the time she was complaining of vomiting and generalized weakness. An emergency room physician noted that she had low levels of potassium and administered potassium and general fluids. In addition, her fingers and toes were blue during the initial examination. While the decedent did improve after receiving the fluids, she was still not ready to be discharged.

A complete blood count (CBC) was also ordered while the patient was in the ER, which revealed elevated band levels and low platelet counts. These abnormal lab results can indicate an infection; however, these results were not noted in the admitting physician’s hospital notes. The attending physician, Dr. Small, had treated the plaintiff for many years and was familiar with her medical history, including the placement of a cardiac pacemaker, cardiomyopathy, renal failure, eczema, and a lumbar fusion that required her to take narcotic medications for pain.

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A Cook County Illinois jury has entered a $1.1 million verdict in favor of a 62 year-old woman who fell at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois after her knee replacement surgery. As a result of the fall, it was claimed that the new personal injuries sustained to her knee kept her disabled for more than 3 years. The Illinois medical negligence claim was filed in Cook County, Illinois; Shiffman v. Northwest Community Hospital, No. 07 L 9292.
At the time that the Illinois medical malpractice occurred, Arlyne Shiffman was a patient at Northwest Community Hospital. She had undergone a total left knee replacement surgery and was on her second day of recovery when the fall occurred. According to the Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit, Ms. Shiffman had been left alone by the nursing staff while up to the commode and was later found on the floor near the commode.
As a result of her fall, Ms. Shiffman’s surgical wound reopened, leaving it more susceptible to infection. The plaintiff did in fact contract an infection and required three additional surgeries, including a removal of the now-infected knee prosthesis. Ms. Shiffman also needed an antibiotic spacer inserted into her knee, which was left in for three months to ensure she remained infection-free. Her last, and hopefully final, surgery was a re-implantation of her knee prosthesis.

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An Illinois jury found for the plaintiff in a recent Illinois surgical malpractice lawsuit. The medical malpractice case involved claims that the defendant ophthalmologist performed an unnecessary and improper surgical procedure on the plaintiff, leaving her blind and with the loss of one of her eyes. After a one week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $1.75 million in Larson v. Miller Eye Center.
At the time of the Illinois surgical malpractice, 75 year-old Shirley Larson had been a patient of ophthalmologist Dr. Miller for more than 13 years. The majority of her treatment under Dr. Miller was for glaucoma, a condition in which increased intraocular pressure promotes vision loss by causing damage to the optic nerve.

In 2003, Dr. Miller recommended that Larson undergo a new surgical procedure to treat her glaucoma. The procedure was known as endoscopic cyclophotocoagulation (ECP), which was touted as an advancement due to it allowing the surgeon to target the tissue to be treated by direct visualization with less potential damage to surrounding tissue. The ECP would include an incision in the eye, with a laser being used to reduce the amount of fluid produced by the eye.

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A recent Illinois emergency room malpractice lawsuit involving the death of a two year-old Chicago boy was recently before a Chicago jury, which awarded the surviving family members $3.66 million. The defendants involved doctors and staff at Trinity Hospital, a Chicago hospital affiliated with Advocate Health Care. The Illinois medical malpractice case was Pettway v. Advocate Trinity Hospital.

Although two year-old Justin Pettway had no history of seizures, one night his parents found him suffering from a grand mal seizure in his bed. His EMT mother and paramedic father rushed Justin to Chicago’s Advocate Trinity Hospital because it was the closest hospital.

The seizures that Justin was having lasted a total of 22 minutes, only stopping after the emergency room physicians ordered seizure-stopping medications. A medical decision was reached to transfer Justin to the University of Chicago Medical Center for further treatment. But before he could be transferred, a CT scan was ordered to rule out a brain bleed. It was during the transport from the emergency room errors occurred.

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An Illinois birth injury lawsuit that alleged that the hospital and its staff chose not to perform a timely Cesarean section has agreed to settle the case for $6.5 million. The lawsuit was brought by the family of the severely brain damaged child with cerebral palsy born after the hospital, labor and delivery nurse, and family physician were late in ordering the necessary Cesarean section delivery. Cisneros, etc. v. The Advocate Health and Hospital Corporation, et al., No. 05 L 0488.

The Cook County birth injury case alleged that the hospital staff was negligent in choosing not to notice the presentation of the baby’s head and failing to diagnose cephalic pelvic disproportion, a condition that occurs when the baby’s head is too large for the mother’s pelvis. The Illinois birth injury lawsuit further alleged that the labor and delivery doctor and a nurse misread the fetal monitoring strips, which resulted in them giving the mother a drug to strengthen contractions. The drug was unnecessary because mom’s contractions were fine.

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A recent Cook County jury verdict of $1.5 million was granted in a failure to diagnose breast cancer lawsuit. The Illinois medical malpractice case was brought against a family doctor by the surviving family of a 32 year-old woman who died from metastatic breast cancer in Estate of Lorraine Hollister v. Northwest Associates for Women’s Healthcare, P.C., et al., 05 L 8872. Hollister’s estate alleged that the family practice physician had elected not to run tests that would have diagnosed the breast cancer three months earlier and that this delay decreased the effectiveness of its subsequent treatment.

While three months is typically a very short time in terms of a failure to diagnose breast cancer lawsuit, there were some special circumstances in Hollister . For one, Hollister first complained of pain and discharge from her breast when she was seven months pregnant. During that visit the defendant, Dr. Wener, did not actually perform an examination of her breasts. Instead he simply told her that changes in her breasts were common during pregnancy. No further examinations of her breasts were done during any of her further prenatal visits and her breast cancer was not found until her 6 week postpartum visit.

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A Kankakee County, Illinois jury returned a $1.5 million medical malpractice jury verdict in favor of the family of a 20 year old woman who died of multi-organ failure connected to undiagnosed chicken pox. Michelle Koenig, who had a history of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, had been put on intravenous steroids and then prednisone, which generally suppressed her immune system. Estate of Koenig v. St. Mary’s Hospital, et al.,No. 07 L 18, focused on the emergency room’s negligence.

Koenig had chicken pox as a child, but the virus reactivated due to her suppressed immune system. She showed the chicken pox with a rash that her parents and friends commented, looked like chicken pox.

Koenig came to the emergency department at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee on February 19, 2006. The emergency room doctor, Timothy Moran did not diagnose the chicken pox even though it showed on her body and her liver enzymes were at levels above normal. She died within 30 hours of that visit.

At the trial, attorneys for Koenig argued that the emergency room negligence was a result of Dr. Moran’s choice not to rule out chicken pox as a potential ailment. Furthermore, Dr. Moran did not recognize that the elevated liver enzymes were an indication that the virus had invaded her liver.

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A 93 year-old nursing home resident, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and who was wheelchair bound, was sitting near the front door of the nursing home when a visitor wheeled him to the outside of the home and left him there unattended. No one noticed. Later, the 93 year-old gentleman rolled down a hill in his wheelchair and fell into a ditch near the side of the road. He wasn’t discovered until hours later. The Illinois nursing home negligence case resulting from this occurrence is Binning v. East Bank Center, Ill. Winnebago Co. Cir. No. 09 L 216 (June 2010)
Russell Binning, suffered fatal injuries as a result of his fall as a result of the nursing home’s negligence. He was survived by his wife and two adult sons.

The Binning family brought an Illinois nursing home malpractice lawsuit against the nursing home under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act where it was alleged that the nursing home facility had chosen not to

(1) properly monitor and supervise the nursing home resident; (2) had chosen not to properly control activity near the nursing home’s front entrance; and (3) chose not to warn others not to assist residents without permission.

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An 89 year-old man was admitted to a nursing home for short-term rehabilitation after undergoing a hip replacement surgery. The man developed Stage II sacral pressure sores in the nursing facility. Rosenbloom v. Claremont Extended Healthcare, et al., 08 L 3872.
A <a href="Rosenbloom v. Claremont Extended Healthcare, et al., 08 L 3872″>nursing home malpractice lawsuit was filed alleging that the defendant nursing home chose not to put in place a care plan, follow the wound care recommendations of a doctor and inaccurately access the resident’s wound, causing it to deteriorate to an infected Stage IV bed sore.

Many times in nursing homes, the residents are unable to move about on their own. In those cases, it is very common for these types of immobile residents to develop pressure sores from inactivity, in ability to change position and because of a lack of appropriate bedding.

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A nursing home resident, who suffered from Down syndrome, had wandered off the facility grounds in March 2006. During that time away, the man, age 47, was struck by a car. He suffered a fractured pelvis and traumatic injury to his sciatic nerve. Hannigan v. Aspire Illinois, Inc., 06 L 4612
Following surgery and a long hospital stay, the man was released, but permanently hampered by his injuries.

In the Illinois nursing home negligence lawsuit filed, it was claimed that a line-of-sight supervision was required at the nursing facility. Another claim of nursing home negligence was that a door alarm should have been placed in the nursing home. The man had previously left facility unattended and that event was noted in his chart.

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