Katherine Crawford was admitted to Westlake Community Hospital for shortness of breath and hypotension following an arterial venous fistula repair surgery of Sept. 17, 2005. She was 38 years old and was an end-stage renal disease patient. Crawford had been on dialysis for 11 years. Her medical history also included…
Maria Lastra-Rico was 45 years old when she underwent a breast biopsy. A pathologist interpreted the test as showing invasive ductal carcinoma; she underwent a double mastectomy with lymph node resection and subsequent surgical reconstruction. She later learned that she in fact had ductal carcinoma in situ, which is noninvasive…
Charles Blevins, 63, underwent outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery. Four days after the surgery, Blevins went to a hospital emergency room complaining of fever and a hot and swollen knee. He was diagnosed as having pseudomonas infection and required hospitalization for one month; during that time he received IV antibiotics. The…
Cynthia and Kenneth Williams’s first child was born with sickle cell anemia. After the birth of their first child, the Williamses found out that they both had the sickle cell trait in which a normal gene is paired with the allele that causes sickle-shaped hemoglobin. Individuals who carry this sickle…
On Dec. 29, 2008, Camilla Hayes, 76, came to the emergency room at Rush Oak Park Hospital complaining of abdominal pain. The emergency room doctor, Dr. Joseph DiPiazza, did not order a complete cardiac workup. She was later diagnosed and treated for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, Hayes was in…
Karol Stawarz was complaining to his primary care physician, Dr. Victor Forys, about his lower abdominal pain. Dr. Forys diagnosed gastroenteritis and prescribed medicine. He also told Stawarz to follow up in 24 hours or go directly to the hospital if his condition got worse. On the following day, Stawarz…
Guadalupe Ramirez had a history of congestive heart failure. She was also an insulin-dependent diabetic, had mitral valve regurgitation, atrial fibrillation, rheumatic heart disease, high blood pressure and a prosthetic heart valve. Ramirez, 72, underwent a cardiac catheterization procedure on Nov. 21, 2003. Eight days after the procedure, Ramirez presented…
In May 2001, Michael Hamilton was a worker at the Behr Process Corp. plant in Chicago Heights, Ill., when he began experiencing severe pain. He was taken by ambulance to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, Ill. At the hospital, Hamilton was met by Dr. Jose Almeida. Within a few…
Orthopedic surgeon Kris Alden, M.D., performed the right knee replacement surgery on the plaintiff, Lawrence Lapiana, on May 26, 2011. Lapiana had a history of severe osteoarthritis in both knees. The surgery was completed at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. During the knee replacement, the artery behind the knee was cut with…
An Alabama medical negligence case that found its way to the state supreme court, arose out of a jury’s verdict in the amount of $3.2 million. The verdict came in favor of the family of Lauree Ellison involving medical malpractice and hospital negligence at Baptist Medical Center East (BMCE). The…