A 15-month-old child was admitted to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital with pneumonia. After a nurse tried three times to place an endotracheal tube, a pediatric critical care specialist intubated the child successfully. However, because of oxygen deprivation related to the nurse’s misplacement of the endotracheal tube into the child’s esophagus, he was catastrophically brain damaged. In this case, the unnamed child was referred to as “Doe” and requires constant care.
Doe and his family filed a lawsuit against the nurse and the pediatric critical care physician alleging that the nurse should not have attempted to intubate Doe more than once. It was also claimed that the doctor should have supervised the nurse during the attempted intubation and should have taken over after her first attempt failed. The lawsuit claimed that the defendants chose not to timely recognize that the endotracheal tube had been misplaced into Doe’s esophagus.
Finally, the Doe family alleged that the hospital was vicariously liable for the actions of the nurse and the doctor.
Before trial the parties reached a $10 million structured settlement with the nurse and hospital. The hospital then settled for a confidential amount.
The attorneys representing the Doe family were Abbott S. Brown and Thomas M. Comer.
Doe v. Madden, No. MID-L-556-15 (N.J. Super. Ct. Middlesex County, Oct. 2015).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling wrongful death cases, traumatic brain injury cases, birth injury cases, medical malpractice cases and nursing home abuse cases for individuals and families 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 Riverside, Morton Grove, Willow Springs, Wilmette, Schiller Park, Palatine, Barrington Hills, Bedford Park, Chicago Ridge, Burr Ridge, Burbank, Buffalo Grove, LaGrange Park, Lansing, Lincolnshire, Lyons, Winnetka, Chicago (Archer Heights, Garfield Park, Lawndale, Little Village, Brighton Park, Humboldt Park), Melrose Park and River Grove, Ill.
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