Medical malpractice occurs when hospitals and healthcare professionals make critical mistakes. When these mistakes are made, Chicago patients have every right to make sure an error is thoroughly investigated in order to hold a negligent doctor or hospital accountable.
Making sure that a doctor, nurse or hospital is held accountable for negligence is a complex process in Illinois, though. For this reason, victims of medical malpractice often seek assistance from an attorney who will know how to protect their rights and aggressively fight for the compensation they deserve.
Last week, a Cook County man filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Chicago hospital and a donated organ provider, accusing the hospital and organ provider of making some very critical errors. The man claims that medical professionals allowed the man to receive a cancerous liver during an organ transplant procedure in 2011. The man now has cancer and could die from the disease.
Organ transplants are complex procedures, and patients are warned about the possible complications they could experience after undergoing a transplant operation. However, medical professionals are also trained to eliminate as many complications as possible. For example, thorough testing must be done on donors and transplant patients before a procedure can even be deemed safe. Additionally, organs must undergo thorough testing in order to make sure the donated organ is healthy.
According to the liver transplant patient’s lawsuit, the Chicago hospital and a donated organ provider had failed to properly test his donated liver before the transplant procedure was performed in May 2011. Shortly after the operation, the patient began to experience health problems, but doctors claimed that his health issues were caused by his alcohol-abuse problems. It has been only 17 months since the procedure, and the man has already been diagnosed with liver cancer. The cancer could be fatal.
The man is seeking compensation for the complications he suffered from the transplant operation. He believes these complications could have been avoided had he been given a healthy liver during his transplant operation.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, “Man claims he got cancer from liver transplant,” Brian Slodysko, Oct. 5, 2012
- Our firm provides counsel to those who have been harmed by surgical errors and other hospital negligence matters. To learn more about our firm and practice, please visit our Chicago hospital mistakes page.