Medical Malpractice Resources and Articles | Page 6

Doctors must follow the acceptable standard of care for their profession. When they neglect to follow the standard of care or act in a way that deviates from the standard and their actions/inactions cause harm to a patient, they can be held accountable through a medical malpractice lawsuit. While med mal laws vary from state […]
Medical Error

Last week on our Joliet medical malpractice law blog, we had mentioned that there is still much debate amongst medical professionals and patient safety groups about whether or not doctors are over screening and over treating women for breast cancer. Breast cancer screenings save many lives every year by detecting cancer in its early stages […]
Failure to Diagnose + Settlements

Some medical errors are more obvious than other types of medical mistakes. Although Chicago patients may be entitled to obtain compensation for their injuries and other damages resulting from medical mistakes, Illinois patients don’t always know when medical errors are made and doctors don’t always tell their patients when medical malpractice does happen. In September, […]
Brain Injuries

Injuries from medical malpractice aren’t the only cause of  patients’ unjust suffering. An unpaid or past due medical bill on a credit report can also lead to serious financial trouble and economic challenges. When an unpaid or past due bill is reported on someone’s credit report, his or her credit score will drop. A low […]
Medical Malpractice

Earlier this week, a woman filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two hospitals in the Joliet area on behalf of her 29-year-old son. The lawsuit claims that both hospitals failed to diagnose her son with a traumatic brain injury in a timely manner. As a result, medical treatment was delayed. When brain injuries are not […]
Brain Injuries

Earlier this week on our Joliet medical malpractice law blog, we started a general discussion about birth injuries and how some types of birth and brain injuries occur when doctors, hospitals and nurses commit medical malpractice. The birth of a child is supposed to be joyful. But when medical professionals fail to provide quality care […]
Birth Injuries

A birth injury can occur when a mother experiences a complicated pregnancy or delivery. Sometimes these complications cannot be avoided. And even when Joliet doctors do properly monitor a woman’s pregnancy, labor and delivery, a baby could still suffer an injury at birth when unexpected complications arise. A birth injury can also occur when Illinois […]
Brain Injuries

Earlier this year on our Chicago medical malpractice law blog, we mentioned that a local family had experienced the unthinkable while seeking medical treatment for their 7-year-old son back in February. The child had been taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center after suffering full cardiac arrest. Doctors tried to resuscitate the child, but they […]
Doctor Errors

When a patient is in critical condition and needs urgent medical oversight, hours or days spent in the intensive care unit can be a terribly stressful time for family members. When that person’s condition worsens due to an unknown medical condition as time slips away, loved ones may stand by feeling helpless and frustrated. A […]
Medical Error

With many cases of medical malpractice going undetected, action is being taken to implement a new reporting system that would make incidents of medical malpractice more transparent. No such system is currently in place, which means that patients have no easy way of reporting suspected mistakes made by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and hospitals. This is […]
Doctor Errors

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 […]
Hospital Negligence

Paramedics and EMTs in Will County and throughout the entire state of Illinois are responsible for saving hundreds of lives every year. But like doctors and nurses, these professionals are also vulnerable to making serious and fatal mistakes whenever they deviate from the standard of care. Last week, a 24-year-old woman died while she was […]
Wrongful Death

Any Illinois family who has been through the horror of a medical error knows how difficult the repercussions can be. Though a favorable settlement or judgment against the negligent medical provider does provide much needed financial relief, the legal process can be complicated. One family has spent many years seeking justice for their daughter who […]
Birth Injuries

Medical negligence in Chicago and throughout the entire country may be contributing to alcohol-related illnesses, which is consequently the third-leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. A panel of medical experts recently suggested that some alcohol-related illnesses, such as hypertension, liver disease and breast and esophageal cancers, may be reduced in the U.S. by […]
Misdiagnosis

A family recently filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a U.S. hospital after their loved one died in the facility’s waiting room over the summer. According to the wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month, staff at the hospital did not even notice that the man had died until the following morning. Even […]
Wrongful Death

Medical malpractice is often associated with doctors, nurses or hospitals making errors during surgery, birth or when prescribing medications. Chicago patients often don’t think that anything could go wrong when doctors perform tests and screenings, unless the results of these tests are read inaccurately. However, some patient safety advocates argue that doctors could actually be […]
Medical Error

Approximately 13 years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a milestone report entitled “To Err is Human” on preventable errors in national hospitals that initiated the patient-safety movement. Unfortunately, according to a study conducted in January of this year, not much has changed: six out of seven hospital-based adverse events, mistakes and accidents go unreported. […]
Patient Safety

Patients who suffer from serious or chronic medical conditions expect to be monitored and cared for by Will County physicians who properly diagnose conditions and illnesses, prescribe necessary medications that control symptoms and provide other assistance. However, after something tragic happens as a result of a patient’s illness, patients and their families might feel as […]
Wrongful Death

For three years, a patient endured pain and discomfort after she had surgery in Illinois for an abdominal hernia. Even though the discomfort started shortly after the woman’s surgery and persisted for several years, doctors could not pinpoint what was causing the woman’s extreme pain. Last year, the woman finally found a doctor who was […]
Surgical Errors

Brain injuries resulting from medical malpractice are commonly associated with birth complications not handled appropriately by doctors, hospitals and nurses. As we mentioned in our previous post on our Joliet medical malpractice law blog, a delayed birth can cause an unborn baby to suffer complications from oxygen deprivation, including brain injuries. But children and other […]
Brain Injuries