On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Failure to Diagnose on Friday, May 18, 2012
Residents of Chicago need to understand how potentially devastating hospital errors and a failure to diagnose properly a patient's condition can truly be. Four years ago a teenager was declared brain dead by four different doctors, and the young boy's life was only saved after his parents asked for a second opinion and discovered that there was still hope.
The boy was injured in a car accident that resulted in the death of one of his friends. The boy was rushed into surgery, but emergency surgery appeared to do nothing to improve his condition. So critical was the boy's condition that doctors suggested to the parents that they have the boys organs donated before taking him off of life support.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Birth Injuries on Monday, May 14, 2012
Illinois parents hoping to have a child may still wish to carefully weigh their options prior to committing to particular fertility treatments. Certain basic fertility treatments appeared to have no more risk of resulting in birth injuries than natural conception. However, such defects were much more common if such treatment included the injecting of a single sperm into an egg.
The exact reason why has yet to be established. It could be the result of jostling of the egg and sperm, or it may be that the sperm used to conceive was defective to begin with and would never have survived through the natural birthing process.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Hospital Negligence on Thursday, May 10, 2012
A case involving purported hospital negligence at the University of Illinois came about because of a father's filming of his wife while delivering the birth of their child. The film contained footage showing the nurse using what appeared to be excessive force while the baby was in the process of being delivered.
Because the child's injuries from the delivery were considered permanent, the video footage was used at trial to demonstrate that hospital negligence did exist. The jury subsequently returned a verdict of $2.3 million.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Hospital Negligence on Monday, May 7, 2012
Hospitals are staffed with a variety of personnel that each plays a vital role in the treatment of patients. But because of each individual's importance, inadequate training or a single mistake by any of these individuals could lead to negligence involving the hospital.
One such role played by hospital staff would be the radiologist. Radiologists have played an ever increasing role in recent years concerning the diagnosis of certain medical conditions and this role is unlikely to decrease in the coming years. Unfortunately, radiologists themselves do not seem to feel that they are up to the task.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Failure to Diagnose on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Chicago physicians often rely upon results of positron emission tomography (PET) scans when coming up with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. A recent study has estimated that close to two thirds of patients were diagnosed incorrectly concerning the disease or were misdiagnosed due to inconclusive data.
Especially since our population is growing older, it is often difficult to differentiate between patients suffering from dementia and the general population among elderly people. Part of the problem is there is little standardization when it comes to the making of such a diagnosis.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Birth Injuries on Monday, April 30, 2012
A Chicago authority has suggested that the saving of one child from cerebral palsy would save approximately $1 million in economic costs. Yet considering the nature of this ailment, this may be an extremely low estimate.
Cerebral palsy is often the result of birth injuries that may or may not have come about because of medical error. Cerebral palsy can cause a lifetime of suffering and hamper a child's movement. Sadly, there is no known cure.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Doctor Errors on Thursday, April 26, 2012
It would seem like commonsense that surgical procedures cannot be performed upon a patient without that individual's consent. However, in a neighboring state of Illinois, a woman is making a medical malpractice claim that she was the unwitting subject for a clinical trial performed by a plastic surgeon. As the result of an unnecessary surgical procedure she claims to be now suffering from uncontrolled pain and scarring.
The plastic surgeon apparently used a device manufactured in Israel that was marketed to as a skin-tightening device. The surgeon used the device upon the woman to perform liposuction on hips, thighs, arm and stomach. However, the woman allegedly was never told that the device should not be used on more than three portions of the body or that she was being used as an unpaid subject in a clinical trial.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Hospital Negligence on Monday, April 23, 2012
Though we hope it could never happen to us, hospital negligence can damage or destroy the lives of practically anyone. A Chicago businessman and former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times died of an embolism as the result of the way a catheter was removed. The medical center where the procedure was performed has now settled out with the man's family for $10 million.
The 53-year old businessman was in the hospital for a dialysis procedure. The gist of the complaint was that such an embolism would never have resulted without medical malpractice. The placing and removal of catheters is a routine medical procedure that likely occurs thousands of times every day in hospitals across the United States.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Medical Malpractice on Tuesday, April 17, 2012
When a premature baby is born, it often must fight for its life with the help of doctors, nurses and hospital staff. One such baby was born 15 weeks early in a Chicago suburb and survived, despite medical issues.
One of the infant's medical issues led to heart surgery. The heart surgery in turn led to a hospital pharmacy error which cost the baby boy his young life. In what may be the largest settlement of its type in Illinois, the parents of the baby were awarded $8.25 million as compensation for their loss.
On behalf of Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak & Kohen Ltd. posted in Doctor Errors on Monday, April 16, 2012
A difficulty that occurs concerning the trying of many medical malpractice suits is the ability of the hospital to assert its privilege not to release certain information. This occurred recently in a Chicago medical malpractice case where a doctor's surgical error likely cost a woman her life. What the plaintiffs sought in this particular case was a peer-reviewed report on the surgery that could have been damning to the hospital's case, and the federal judge refused to order release of the report.
The circumstances of this particular lawsuit are horrific. The surgery being performed was a hysterectomy. The judge summarized what went wrong in the surgery as follows: "During the surgery, her bowel was lacerated and its contents began leaking into her abdomen. Five days later, she died from an overwhelming infection."
