Thirteen-week-old Kevin Hernandez underwent colon surgery. After surgery, Kevin experienced chronic diarrhea and vomiting. He was taken to a hospital emergency department where he was diagnosed with dehydration. Kevin was treated over the next 23 hours by the administration of fluids. He was shortly thereafter discharged from the hospital.
Sadly, two days later, Kevin died of dehydration. He was survived by his parents and an older sibling.
Kevin’s mother, individually and on behalf of Kevin’s estate, sued the family physician, Reynaldo Caluag, M.D., who treated Kevin during his hospital stay. Dr. Caluag’s employer was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The complaint brought against the doctor and his employer alleged that Dr. Caluag chose not to properly treat Kevin for dehydration and instead discharged him prematurely without giving adequate home care instructions to his parents.
The lawsuit also alleged, among other things, that the defendant physician and his employer were required to tell Kevin’s mother how to recognize the signs and symptoms of dehydration, but chose not to do so.
In addition, the family sued the hospital from which Kevin was discharged early, claiming that its nurses chose not to communicate properly with Dr. Caluag and was negligent in the way they monitored Kevin during that hospital stay. After the jury deliberated this case, it entered a jury verdict in favor of the Hernandez family in the amount of $1.5 million. The attorneys for the Hernandez family who successfully handled this wrongful death, medical negligence case were Kenneth C. Chessick and Jasna K. Davis.
Hernandez v. Caluag, No. 09 L 008110 (Cook County, Illinois Sept. 19, 2013).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling medical negligence cases, birth injury cases and wrongful death cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 37 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Maywood, Berwyn, Riverside, Chicago (Garfield Ridge, Archer Heights), Justice, Palos Hills, Chicago Ridge, Worth, Clarendon Hills, Countryside, North Riverside, Northbrook, Northlake and Bloomingdale, Ill.
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