$2 Million Settlement Reached for Failure to Transfer Patient from Urgent Care to Hospital

Ms. Doe, age 47, suffered from multiple sclerosis and used a walker. After she visited an urgent care clinic, she became tired and tried to sit down on her walker. The walker flipped over and Ms. Doe hit her head on the pavement.

A physician’s assistant at the clinic treated the injury and stitched Ms. Doe’s wound before discharging her with only verbal instructions.

Ms. Doe lapsed into a coma approximately five hours later. She was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where testing revealed a skull fracture and intracranial hemorrhage with midline shift.

The midline shift is a shift of the brain past its center line. An indication of the shift is made evident by neuroimaging, usually a CT scan. A midline shift is often associated with high or increased intracranial pressure, which can be deadly.

Despite undergoing neurosurgery, Ms. Doe now suffers from severe cognitive deficits and requires 24-hour care.

Ms. Doe sued the urgent care clinic alleging that it chose not to transfer her to a hospital emergency room after she fell in light of her neurological symptoms, including one-sided weakness.

The lawsuit also maintained that the defendant urgent care facility should have sent Ms. Doe home with written, not verbal instructions.

The defendant urgent care facility argued that Ms. Doe did not present with focal neurological deficits that would have warranted transfer to a hospital.

Before trial, the parties settled for $2 million with confidentiality as far as the parties to this case.

The attorney successfully representing Ms. Doe was Eric S. Rossman.

In preparation of this case, Ms. Doe’s counsel engaged expert witnesses specializing in emergency medicine, neuroradiology, nursing, life care planning, neurology and economics.

Doe v. Roe Urgent Care, Confidential (Idaho Dist. Ct. Ada County).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling medical negligence cases, traumatic brain injury lawsuits, birth trauma injury lawsuits and wrongful death cases for individuals, families and loved ones who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 40 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Bolingbrook, Joliet, University Park, Bensenville, Aurora, St. Charles, Wheaton, Waukegan, Chicago (North Lawndale, Austin, Pilsen, Lakeview, Chinatown, Albany Park, Jefferson Park, Bronzeville), Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Glencoe, Hinsdale, LaGrange Park, Clarendon Hills, Oak Brook and Des Plaines, Ill.