Mother of Brain-Damaged Boy Awarded $50M in Illinois Malpractice Suit

November 8, 2019

  • November 8, 2019 at 1:41 pm
    Charles Ford says:
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    and you wonder why Illinois has become a chamber pot?

    • November 11, 2019 at 1:04 pm
      helpingout says:
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      What is your issue with this case? Is it the person suing for the hospital not looking out for the best interest of their patient and their child, or rather with the family seeking compensation?

      If it is the later why would you say so, as this seems like a clear malpractice suit.

      • November 12, 2019 at 5:38 pm
        helpingout says:
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        To anyone down voting, again why do you disagree with this lawsuit as this seems like a clear malpractice suit.

        Please engage in a constructive conversation.

        • November 13, 2019 at 3:12 pm
          jj says:
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          RE the award: Wish we had a breakdown of the award. How much for medical costs (current and future)? How much for pain & suffering, and how much punitive? The latter 2, in my mind are what’s messed up.

          Re the medical error: It’s never clear. Not all medical errors or negative outcome is a result of malpractice. Sometimes bad things happen even though everything may have been done correctly.

          From this article, we don’t know if they took this to trial. We don’t know if the plaintiff refused all settlement offers or if the medical experts on the defense thought the actions of the hospital were defensible. (“Defensible” meaning that they didn’t think the medical errors (if any) and/or the negative outcomes wer the result of malpractice.)

          We can never make judgments (pro or con) about the merits of a case simply by reading a news article. however, awards as large as this most often are too high, as they go way beyond making the patient/patient’s family “whole”.

          • November 14, 2019 at 11:00 am
            Jon says:
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            Do you really think that if someone caused your child severe brain damage you could ever really be “made whole” for that?

          • November 19, 2019 at 4:33 pm
            sak74 says:
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            The case did go to trail and the actual award was $101M but both parties agreed that the cap damages at $50M (the hospital agreed not to appeal and litigation stops and the family receives the funds right away). The woman went to the hospital complaining she didn’t feel the baby moving ultra sound showed the baby wasn’t moving and the doctor was not informed of this until five hours later. It was determined a C-section done sooner would have prevented the brain damage from occurring. I haven’t seen a break down of the awarded amount, however most of what I read regarding the case stated the award was so high as the boy is only 5 and needs around the clock care as he is incapable of doing anything for himself. Given he is only 5 it could potentially take all of those funds to provide care and treatment for any future medical issues that may arise given the fact he is so severely disabled. This article was lacking in total information however I do believe there have been others on IJ during the course of the trial that discussed various aspects. This article was just to relay the final outcome.

  • November 8, 2019 at 3:41 pm
    FFA says:
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    Who has the $50 mill?

    • November 11, 2019 at 12:12 pm
      Rosenblatt says:
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      Guessing it’ll be paid by whomever wrote the Medical Professional Liability Insurance policy, no?

    • November 13, 2019 at 2:18 pm
      Jax Agent says:
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      The hospital had it yesterday, today the law firm has either half or 1/3rd of it and the plaintiff has the balance.

  • November 14, 2019 at 9:24 am
    Smooth says:
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    This is why Missouri keeps building more hospitals and surgery centers. Our law reads you cannot sue for malpractice unless you can PROVE the Doctor/Surgeon did something negligent on purpose. They aren’t held to a standard higher than a typical employee. Over 99% of our medical malpractice suits are thrown out.

    I know this because I tried to sue here. Cancer didn’t kill me, a mistake a doctor made on a scan two years ago did. He ordered an MRI of my brain. The cancer was in my neck. He never checked the scans personally, but the staff said there was absolutely no cancer in the scans. I was declared cancer free. Except I wasn’t. Had the doctor bothered to check the scans himself, he would have seen he ordered the wrong one. His staff didn’t know where my cancer was (neck), so they simply did their job by saying there was no cancer present. I’ve spoken with three different law firms, one being the largest in the state of Missouri. They said I had absolutely zero chance of even being offered a settlement as the doctor made a mistake, but it wasn’t something done intentionally or through gross negligence. He simply checked the wrong box on the form and chose ‘head’ instead of ‘neck’. Having never had cancer before, I would never have thought to ask to see my scans. You trust your medical professional…. Anyway, they could have removed the cancer then and I would have lived. A simple medical mistake cost me my life. I don’t hold it against the doctor anymore. I did for a while, but I’m over it. I make mistakes all the time. Because of the laws, we have hospitals being built all over the place. Even our old hospitals, like SLU and Barnes, are building new buildings for more doctors to come here. I’m certain many of them are coming from Illinois.

    • November 14, 2019 at 11:01 am
      Jon says:
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      Truly devastating, Smooth.



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