A $4.5 million settlement was reached between Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center and the family of a man who died after his bladder ruptured at the Chicago hospital. The claims in the wrongful death case of The Estate of Krzysztof Bialas v. Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center, No. 07 L 12141, were that the decedent’s death could have been avoided if the hospital’s radiologist had correctly read a CT scan that would have identified the problem.
The decedent, Krzysztof Bialas, was a 42 year-old warehouse worker who presented to Oak Lawn’s Christ Hospital with a fractured pelvis after being injured in a forklift accident at his job. Nursing notes from the hospital visit indicated that Bialas’s scrotum was extremely swollen. In response to this observation, doctors ordered a CT scan of Bialas’s abdomen and pelvis.
While Bialas’s fractured pelvis was appropriately diagnosed by x-ray, the radiologist failed to recognize the presence of a large amount of fluid in Bialas’s pelvic area. The medical malpractice complaint filed by the decedent’s estate alleged that it was this radiology error that ultimately led to Bialas’s death.
The estate contended that the CT scans showed the presence of a large amount of fluid, which was later discovered to be urine. Decedent’s estate alleged that the radiologist should have been able to identify the decedent’s bladder laceration on the earlier CT scans. In addition, the estate alleged that had the bladder laceration been identified in a timely fashion that it could have been easily treated by inserting a catheter to remove the urine.
However, this was not done and Bialas’s bladder ended up rupturing and he developed a severe case of sepsis. He developed multisystem organ failure and died just four days after entering Christ Hospital. Bialas was only in his early 40s and was survived by his wife, a teenage son, and a teenage daughter. The settlement for $4.5 million was made between the surviving family members and Christ Hospital and was approved by a Cook County Circuit Court judge.
Chicago’s Kreisman Law Offices has been handling Illinois radiology malpractice lawsuits and wrongful death cases for families and individuals for more than 35 years in and around Chicago and Cook County, including Darien, Oak Park, Skokie, Wheeling, and Bartlett.
Similar blog posts:
Illinois Radiologist Error Results in $1.7 Million Settlement – Tariq v. Naperville Radiologist, S.C., et al.
Cook County Undiagnosed Brain Injury Verdict Reached By Jury
Evanston Hospital Over-Radiation Leads to Severe Brain Damage: The Hidden Dangers of Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)