Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

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June 18, 2008- After a lengthy mediation session led by retired Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stuart Nudelman, the defendants, Victor Colin, M.D. and his professional practice, Elgin Family Physicians, agreed to settle the Illinois wrongful death case of decedent, Timothy.

Kreisman Law Offices handled the Illinois wrongful death claim which centered on the Illinois physicians’ medical malpractice as a result of an incorrect diagnosis and treatment of Timothy’s condition of fever, headache, and sleeplessness for at least two weeks. While these signs might not be overly alarming in your typical patient, Timothy’s circumstances weren’t those of your typical patient.

Born with a congenital heart valve defect of Tetralogy of Fallot, Timothy had undergone three open heart surgeries for valve repair, including a porcine (pig) valve replacement of his pulmonary valve in 1981. This history placed Timothy at high risk for bacterial endocarditis, which is a serious infection of the endocardium (the smooth interior lining of the heart) and the heart valves, typically caused by bacteria. It was this type of infection that eventually led to Timothy’s death.

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A $2.1 Million settlement was reached against the hospital and doctors in an Illinois medical negligence lawsuit involving the wrongful death of a woman from brain herniation after being discharged from a hospital. She was discharged with complaints of headaches despite a diagnosis of a brain tumor.

Mary, a 50 year-old female, was diagnosed at South Suburban Hospital with a right frontal lobe meningioma in early September, 2003, at which time she was discharged from the hospital with a referral to a University of Chicago neurosurgeon. However, before seeing the neurosurgeon she presented back to South Suburban Hospital two days later complaining of headaches and vomiting.

She is given some pain medication and sent home. Early the next morning she is found unresponsive by her husband. She was taken by ambulance back to South Suburban, but died later that day. An autopsy revealed that the cause of the Illinois woman’s wrongful death was excessive fluid building up around her tumor causing her brain to shift to the left and down through the brain stem, putting extreme pressure on her brain, resulting in brain herniation.

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