CHH

Choosing the right nursing home for a loved one can be a very difficult decision for Illinois families to make. With numerous cases of nursing home abuse and neglect that are reported each year, many worry that their loved ones may be subjected to similar incidents of abuse or suffer a wrongful death due to […]
Wrongful Death

A Naperville doctor, who was sued last year for medical malpractice, is now being accused by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation of not using proper medical judgment when treating patients with autism. The doctor has been using alternative forms of treatment in autistic patients for years. Although the alternative methods of treatment […]
Medication Errors

There are many Illinois residents who must take prescription medications every day in order to control and manage their health problems. As a result, pharmacists fill thousands of prescriptions on a daily basis, and they must follow strict procedures in order to prevent patients from getting the wrong medication or the wrong dosage. Failing to […]
Medication Errors

There are a number of things that can go wrong during any type of surgery. Knowing about the risks that are involved with surgery, patients often are relieved once making it through surgery without any complications and they look forward to moving on with their lives. Unfortunately, there are also a number of things that […]
Nursing Negligence

When it was discovered that a patient at University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago had died after a series of medical errors, the hospital and the victim’s family made a promise to focus on improving the safety of patients. Since the woman’s wrongful death in 2008, efforts have been made to change policies at […]
Hospital Negligence

A patient’s symptoms may not always be easy to diagnose, but doctors are trained to determine all of the different factors that could be causing a patient’s symptoms in order to properly rule out any life-threatening diseases or illnesses. If a doctor fails to consider all of the different factors that could be affecting one’s […]
Misdiagnosis

When undergoing surgery, one understands that a variety of complications may arise that could affect the success of a surgery. But medical professionals in Illinois and throughout the United States are also held to the highest standards in order to ensure that the possibility of complications arising from asurgical error is slim. Errors such as […]
Surgical Errors

A study has found that a stent approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration intended to prevent strokes in high-risk patients actually increased the occurrence of strokes after it was placed. Accordingly, testing of the stent was immediately stopped to avoid the risk of further harm caused by the potentially defective product. According to […]
Medical Devices

The process to undergo surgery to remove and transplant an organ is lengthy and complex. Many Chicago patients have waited months before surgery could take place. Doctors first have to determine whether or not an individual is a good candidate for surgery, and then the individual must wait for a compatible organ. With thousands of […]
Doctor Errors

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) announced a new safety campaign this week regarding the rise of cosmetic surgeries that are being performed across the country by unqualified doctors. A woman recently told ABCnews.com about her botched surgery after she failed to verify whether or not her doctor was certified to perform a corrective […]
Medical Error

When a child becomes severely ill or suffers from a chronic medical condition, it is only natural that a parent may worry about his or her child’s health. However, parents also understand that medical professionals have a responsibility to properly diagnose and treat each patient to the best of their abilities. One Illinois family who […]
Hospital Negligence

A new program at Johns Hopkins, one of the foremost medical centers in the country, is showing promise in reducing the number of errors made by medical professionals. Medical mistakes injure thousands of people each year and can cause birth injuries, failures in diagnoses and other dangerous errors, so clearly, anything that can be done […]
Medical Error

We trust doctors with the most intimate details of our lives, trusting that they will use this information to help us and to cure what ails us. But how much do we know about the doctors that we trust with our most personal information? Are they trustworthy? Have they ever assaulted a patient? Or been […]
Medical Malpractice Reform

The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case challenging a decades-old legal doctrine that prevents service members from seeking medical malpractice damages against military hospitals. The case involves the wrongful death of an Air Force staff sergeant who died due to a nurse’s error during an appendectomy in 2003. In a 1950 case, […]
Medical Malpractice Reform

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that premature infants born before 37 weeks should not be given SimplyThick. The FDA warning comes after the agency received 15 reports of premature infants developing necrotizing enterocolitis after taking SimplyThick – sadly, two of the babies died. According to the FDA, the illness occurred in “at least […]
Medications and Overdose

A recent study conducted by the Medical University of South Carolina found a high number of infants’ narcotic prescriptions contain medication errors, putting young children at risk for overdoses. Inaccurate dosing is a particular danger young children because of narcotic drugs’ sedative effects. The researchers identified 19 narcotic-containing drugs most-prescribed to children age zero to […]
Medical Error + Medications and Overdose

Just last week, the Health Affairs journal published a new study on medical mistakes- paying close attention to the cost of errors made during hospital stays. The study found that for every dollar spent on heath care, as much as 45 cents is spent making (and attempting to fix) medical mistakes. In 1999, an Institute […]
Medical Error

Medical errors happen every day. When most people hear about mistakes being made in hospitals that lead to severe brain damage or permanent injury, they think that it is the exception to the rule and certainly could never happen to their family. Unfortunately, for one family a simple medication error led to a permanent injury […]
Medical Malpractice Reform

According to one of the latest medical studies, the good news is that most prescription errors in hospitals can be narrowed down to a handful of characteristics. The bad news is that theseprescription errors continue to occur. The study, published in January’s edition of the Journal of Pain, found that for every 1,000 prescriptions written […]
Medical Research + Medications and Overdose

As you may have heard before, July is the worst time of the year to go to the hospital due largely to the influx of brand new residents, fresh from medical school who are more apt to make medical mistakes. But this summer – thanks to new standards enacted by the Accreditation Council for Graduate […]
Medical Malpractice + Patient Safety