In a confidential settlement, a 50-year-old woman underwent a microdiscectomy performed by a neurosurgeon. The patient’s blood pressure dropped after the procedure, and her condition then deteriorated.
A CT scan showed that the woman’s iliac artery was injured during the microdiscectomy. By the time the patient was transferred to another hospital for repair surgery, her medical status was severely compromised. Despite an emergency surgery to repair the artery, the patient died.
The patient was the owner of a small business earning about $25,000 per year. Her decedent now runs the business. She was survived by her husband and three adult children.
The family of the deceased woman filed a lawsuit against the doctor, the neurosurgeon, alleging that he was negligent in lacerating her iliac artery and by choosing not to control his surgical instrument and by failing to act timely to diagnose the cause of her weakening and deteriorating status.
The doctor argued that he was not told of the patient’s deteriorating postoperative condition and that had he been so informed, he would have arranged for an immediate surgical intervention to save the patient. The doctor also asserted that the patient’s injury was a known complication of this type of surgery, a microdiscectomy. A microdiscectomy surgery is a type of spine surgery where a small portion of the bone over the nerve root or disk is removed to relieve the nerve impingement and to make room at that place to allow for healing. Most times a microdiscectomy is done on an outpatient basis. It is normally a minimally invasive surgery.
Before trial, the parties settled the case confidentially for $1 million.
The attorney representing the patient’s family was Peter A. Schmit.
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling surgical negligence cases, medical malpractice cases, wrongful death cases, birth trauma cases and nursing home abuse cases for individuals and families who have been injured or killed by the negligence of a medical provider for more than 40 years, in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas including, Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Elk Grove Village, Chicago (Little Village, Lawndale, Englewood, Elmwood Park, Roseland, Pullman, Lake Calumet, Woodlawn, Washington Park, West Town, Greek Town, Near South, Bronzeville, Edgebrook), Harwood Heights, Northlake and Villa Park, Ill.
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