Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

It was not long ago that Yaz and Yasmin ranked as one of the leading birth control pills on the market. They were able to corner a large share of the market in large part due to a successful ad campaign marketed towards women under 35 and promises to decrease acne and premenstrual depression. However, nowadays when Yaz and Yasmin are in the news it is related to the large number of lawsuits filed against the drugs' manufacturer.

Bayer Pharmaceuticals Co. began manufacturing Yasmin in 2001 and Yaz in 2006. These new forms of birth control differed from older versions of oral contraceptives in that Yasmin and Yaz contained less estrogen and added a new synthetic form of progestin, called drospirenone. Supposedly, this new combination would lower the risk of blood clots typically caused by high levels of estrogen in birth control pills.

However, recent studies have shown that in fact Yaz and Yasmin users actually have a greater risk of developing blood clots than women using older forms of birth control. In addition, new information has suggested that Yaz and Yasmin also can cause heart failure, strokes, and other organ failures. As a result, over 11,300 product liability lawsuits were filed against Bayer.

Continue reading "70 Yaz and Yasmin Birth Control Drug Cases Settled" »

Doctors are relying more and more on narcotic medications to treat patients' increased complaints of chronic pain. However, while this might mean that more patients' pain is being treated in the short-term, it has some potentially harmful long-term consequences. The longer patients remain on opiate medications, the less effective they are at treating pain, which sometimes results in the dosage increasing to potentially dangerous levels.

A recent medical malpractice lawsuit involved claims that the defendant physician's negligence in prescribing a pain patch caused a patient's death. The Grundy County lawsuit alleged that Dr. Timothy Sanders, an anesthesiologist, contributed to the decedent's death by extending the use of use of her Fentanyl patch. The anesthesiologist had used the Fentanyl patch to treat the patient's pain following a short, one-hour surgery to treat her broken hip. However, within nine hours of the surgery the patient had died.

While the patient's death was ultimately attributed to her Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), an autopsy report revealed that Fentanyl intoxication significantly contributed to her death. The 71 year-old decedent had been on a Fentanyl Duragic Patch for several years prior to her death as a means of treating chronic pain caused by compression fractures in her back. Fentanyl is an opiate drug and is often not prescribed for patients with COPD because of its potential to cause respiratory problems.

Based on the autopsy report, the decedent's surviving family members brought a http://www.robertkreisman.com/lawyer-attorney-1344040.html
against the defendant anesthesiologist in which they alleged that he should not have kept the Fentanyl patch on for as long as he did. Instead, the family contended it should have been removed following the surgery, arguing that its continued use was contraindicated. Furthermore, the decedent's family was critical of the anesthesiologist prescribing the Fentanyl patch in conjunction with her warming blanket on the basis that the patch should not have been exposed to a heat source.

Continue reading "Jury Finds for Doctor in Fentanyl Death Case" »

In TV and movie trial dramas, we are always shown a jury hotly debating over the case facts, with one or two jurors holding out against the rest of the jury. However, in Illinois, in order for a jury verdict to stand it needs to be unanimous. This means that if even one of the jurors cannot agree with the rest of the jury, then the judge finds the jury to be deadlocked and declares a mistrial.

This occurred in the Illinois wrongful death lawsuit of Estate of Steven Prehn, deceased v. Dr. Sandeep Amin, University Anesthesiologists S.C., 07 L 1115. After the jury debated for over ten hours over the course of two days it was still unable to reach an unanimous decision. While nine jurors were in favor of the plaintiff, the remaining three jurors were in favor of the defendant doctor.

Prehn involved the death of a 46 year-old father of three from a pain medication overdose. Steven Prehn had visited Dr. Amin, a pain management specialists, at his Rush Pain Center facility with complaints of chronic pain. Dr. Amin prescribed Methadone, an opiate or narcotic medication typically prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. Twenty-six hours after the office visit, Prehn was found dead at his home from a Methadone overdose.

Continue reading "$500,000 Settlement After Jury Deadlock Over Patient's Death From Pain Medication Overdose - Estate of Prehn v. Dr. Amin" »

The patient-physician relationship is built on trust - the patient trusts that his doctor is acting within the standard of care and the physician trusts that the patient is following his orders. In this Illinois medical malpractice case, both parties argued that the other violated this mutual trust. The plaintiff argued that the defendant doctor acted negligently, while the doctor argued that the plaintiff failed to follow his medical advice.

The current case arose after the 19 year-old plaintiff developed lithium toxicity. The defendant psychiatrist, Dr. John Huh, had prescribed the plaintiff lithium for her bipolar disorder. This in itself was not unusual. Lithium is often prescribed to treat patients with bipolar disorder due to its ability to reduce the frequency and severity of bipolar depression.

However, lithium carries with it some fairly serious side effects, including muscle weakness, sudden hair loss, poor concentration, drowsiness, vomiting, and diarrhea. In order to prevent these serious side effects, physicians regularly monitor the levels of lithium in a patient's blood stream, adjusting the dosage as necessary. However, in the this case, Dr. Huh failed to obtain regular blood draws, thereby missing the warning signs that the plaintiff was developing lithium toxicity.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $125,000 for Toxic Dose of Lithium" »

A Cook County wrongful death lawsuit involving the death of a 45 year-old woman was settled by the decedent's estate for $1.35 million. The Illinois lawsuit dealt with claims of medical negligence on behalf of the defendant surgeon and the hospital where he as employed. Jerry Markbreit for the Estate of Betsy Markbreit v. Jose Velasco, M.D., et al., 07 L 8703.

The Illinois surgical malpractice began in 2004, when Ms. Markbreit was admitted to Rush North Shore Medical Center to have a benign growth on her thyroid gland. Prior testing had indicated that the benign growth was limited to the right side of Ms. Markbriet's thyroid gland, a finding that was confirmed on the surgical report. Yet the surgeon, Dr. Jose Velasco, elected to perform a total thyroidectomy on the decedent.

The Cook County medical malpractice claim was critical of the surgeon's decision to perform a total thyroidectomy. Ms. Markbreit had only been scheduled for a partial thyroidectomy and given the fact that her benign growth was isolated to one side of her thyroid gland there was no medical reason to perform a total thyroidectomy. This lack of medical necessity was significant because the plaintiff's wrongful death lawsuit traced all of Ms. Markbreit's subsequent medical problems and eventual death back to the unnecessary total thyroidectomy.

Continue reading "Cook County Surgical Error and Subsequent Overmedication Leads to Illinois Woman's Death - $1.35 Million Settlement Reached in Markbreit v. Velasco" »

Johnson & Johnson has announced that it will be dropping one of its medical devices from production - by the end of 2011, the company will cease manufacturing its drug-coated heart stents. The company explains its decision was due its decreasing market share in the heart stent category; Johnson & Johnson is looking to funnel the newly freed funds into developing other medical products.

Johnson & Johnson's drug-coated heart stents were manufactured in conjunction with Cordis, its subsidiary. Cordis's Cypher stent was the first drug-coated heart stent approved by the FDA. However, by the end of this year, it will no longer be manufactured. Likewise, Cordis will halt its research and development of a new stent, the Nevo stent.

The sale of drug-coated heart stents represents a $4 billion market, which previously had been divided between Johnson & Johnson/Cordis, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Abbott Laboratories. However, Cordis's portion of that market has been decreasing. In 2006, Cordis made $2.6 billion globally from the sale of drug-coated stents, whereas last year it only made $627 million.

Continue reading "Johnson & Johnson to Stop Manufacturing Drug-Coated Heart Stents" »

France's Agence Francaise De Securite Sanitaire Des Produits De Sante (AFSSAPS) banned the use of Actors, a drug prescribed to control diabetes, due to concerns that it increases the risk of bladder cancer amongst patients taking the drug. Actors manufactured by Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical and is one of the pharmaceutical company's top-selling drugs. The French medical board's decision has caused Germany to follow suit in banning the diabetes drug, with reports that the UK might soon follow.

The French drug suspension not only affects Actos, but also applies to Competact, a similar prescription drug that combines Actos with metformin. Both drugs were suspended because they contained the active ingredient Pioglitazone, which has been linked to the increase risk of bladder cancer. This risk was documented in a study of antidiabetic patients taking antidiabetic medicines that was conducted by the Caisse National d'Assurance Maladie between 2006 and 2009.

The sale of Actos was approved in Europe in 2000, with Competact being approved in 2006. Since that time, an estimated 230,000 patients use Actos in France alone. In 2010, Europe accounted for Y29.5 billion, or about 7.5%, of Actos Y387.9 billion in global sales. The banning of Actos in Europe could drastically affect the fate of the Japan-based pharmaceutical company and exposes it to potential pharmaceutical liability lawsuits.

Continue reading "Use of Actos Suspended Across Europe After Studies Link Its Use to Increased Risk for Bladder Cancer" »

Second chances are rare in medicine. Oftentimes doctors and nurses have one chance to get something right, which means that medical providers need to monitor patients' reactions to different treatment modalities. When they see something that is not right, medical providers need to pick up on the warning signs and correct the problem because chances are they will only get one chance to do so.

However, in the case of Kerry Rupright, doctors missed their chance to prevent Kerry's permanent brain injury from happening. They missed the signs that should have alerted them that she was not reacting well to her various medications, instead opting to continue her treatment plan. The medical malpractice lawsuit of Estate of Kerry Rupright v. Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, et al., 05 L 9451, was filed in an effort to hold these doctors accountable for their lack of vigilance in monitoring Kerry's condition.

Kerry presented to Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for treatment of her transverse myelitis, which is inflammation across one section of the spinal cord. Transverse myelitis is extremely painful, so Kerry was prescribed pain medications as part of her treatment plan. Specifically, Kerry was given a pain relief patch that contained Duragesic and Fentanyl, which can cause respiratory distress when taken with other medications.

Continue reading "Chicago Woman Dies After Doctors Ignore Warning Signs of Respiratory Distress - $3.75 Million Settlement Reached in Rupright v. Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago" »

Topamax is an anticonvulsant medication that is prescribed to treat epilepsy and the associated seizures, or can also be prescribed to prevent migraine headaches. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new warning about some birth defects associated with Topamax. Specifically, the drug warning states that mothers taking Topamax showed higher incidences of cleft lips and cleft palates than mothers not taking Topamax.

This discovery was made by the North American Antiepileptic Drug (NAAED) Pregnancy Registry, whose data showed that 1.4% of infants exposed to Topamax during the first trimester were likely to develop a cleft lip or cleft palate. The prevalence of cleft lips or palate in infants with no exposure to anticonvulsant medications was 0.07%.

In light of this new information, the FDA elevated the Topamax's pregnancy category from C to D. Under Category D, "There is positive evidence of human fetal risk based on adverse reaction data from investigational or marketing experience or studies in
pregnant women despite potential risks." Physicians are advised not to prescribe Topamax to pregnant women unless the potential benefits of the drug outweigh the potential risks to the fetus.

Continue reading "Topamax Found to Be Associated with Increased Risk of Congenital Birth Defects" »

A $14.9 million settlement was reached in an Illinois medical malpractice case that left the plaintiff with permanent brain damage. The lawsuit of Jennifer Lee v. Palos Community Hospital, et al., 09 L 7824, was brought against the hospital where the plaintiff was treated, as well as the individual doctors who treated the plaintiff.

In 2009, plaintiff, Jennifer Lee, presented to Palos Community Hospital with severe dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea. The typical treatment for dehydration is to pump the patient with IV fluids and monitor their electrolyte levels. When Ms. Lee presented to the hospital, her initial blood work showed an extremely high level of sodium. While normal sodium levels range from 135 mmol/L to 145 mmol/L, Ms. Lee's sodium level was at 165 mmol/L.

Typically, dehydration results in low sodium levels, not high sodium levels. Blood sodium levels can indicate whether there is an imbalance between the levels of sodium and water in your body. While Ms. Lee's initial sodium levels were critically high, it fluctuated between critically high and critically low during the course of her admission. In fact, it was this change from critically high, to critically low, then back to critically high that caused the plaintiff's brain damage and was the subject of her medical malpractice lawsuit.

Continue reading "Illinois Hospital's Failure to Monitor Patient Results in Permanent Brain Damage - $14.9 Million Settlement in Lee v. Palos Community Hospital" »