$3,000,000 Wrongful Death – Pretrial Settlement (Illinois)

One of the known risks of abdominal surgery is infection, and like all infections, the earlier the treatment the better the outcome. A man presented to the emergency room a week and a half after a colostomy closure surgery. When the man presented to the emergency room, he had obvious signs of infection and an abdominal problem that would require surgery. There was an initial delay in calling for a surgeon. Then, a sequence of surgeons had to be called before any surgeon agreed to come to the hospital to operate on the man. As a result, there was a delay of over eight hours in starting the emergency operation which was needed to treat the infection and its cause. Due to the delay, the infection spread and the patient did not survive.