Our Legal Blog

Hospital safety ratings can matter. Being able to know how well your medical providers are performing can be important when making healthcare choices. If you knew a hospital had a D rating, would you go there? Would you risk suffering an injury if you could spend another 10 minutes driving to an A-rated hospital?…

The safety record for anesthesia has improved dramatically in recent times. However, if you are facing a procedure that requires anesthesia, it is essential to understand the risks. Decreasing the odds of a bad outcome If you have concerns regarding anesthesia, bring your questions to your medical team. Be direct with your questions, and…

There’s a pivotal scene in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” where the pharmacist, Mr. Gower — who is insane with grief after learning that his son has died from influenza and who has gotten drunk as a result — almost poisons a young customer’s medicine with cyanide. Fortunately, an adolescent George Bailey’s timely…

J.T., a 30-year‐old Chicagoland woman, presented to the Emergency Department at a local Chicago hospital with severe back pain. She was admitted to that hospital under the care of H.A., M.D., a hospitalist employed by United Elite Hospitalists, LLC. While an inpatient and under Dr. H.A.’s care, J.T. developed saddle anesthesia and urinary retention….

When you go to a hospital, you expect to receive the best care possible. However, depending on the exact hospital you go to, you could face a greater risk of suffering from medical malpractice.  The Leapfrog Group recently released its finding of potentially dangerous hospitals in the Chicago area. The study found that five hospitals…

In an unusual case of medical negligence by a hospital-owned urgent care center, an Idaho man suffered a catastrophic spinal injury due to medical negligence. The malpractice incident by a local urgent care center’s medical providers and their failure to follow protocol resulted in the man’s paralysis from the waist down. People who have…

When people have a medical emergency, they would expect an ambulance to take them to the nearest hospital for treatment. However, in the biggest cities in the country, including Chicago, that does not always happen. There is a practice hospitals implement called ambulance diversion. It occurs when a hospital is at capacity, and people…

After surgery, most people expect their bodies to be clear of the problem that triggered the need for surgery. However, when one problem goes away, another may develop when a surgeon leaves behind a foreign object inside the patient’s body. This is what happened to one Illinois woman when she discovered she had a piece…

When doctors perform surgery, the goal is to fix or repair organs. Occasionally, a transplant is necessary, and surgeons take great care to ensure no unhealthy foreign substances go into the body. However, it is actually quite common for surgeons to leave behind medical tools, particularly surgical sponges, inside patients’ bodies.  One Illinois man discovered…

As experts have long argued, communication is a key factor in providing proper medical care. When provider communication breaks down, medical errors ensue, causing injury, and even death. The advent and increasingly widespread use of electronic health records by providers in Illinois and nationwide has a great potential to improve communication and record-keeping, with a…