Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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Cook County commissioners voted Feb. 5, 2013, to pay $24 million in hospital malpractice settlements. Of that total, $20 million will be paid to the family of a boy who suffered brain damage after a heart attack following surgery at a Chicago hospital.

A lawsuit was filed against Stroger Hospital by the boy’s mother, Justine Francique. Her son, Keith, underwent surgery for an undescended testicle in 2011. Following the operation, the boy suffered a heart attack, according to hospital records.

Unfortunately, nurses and doctors in attendance did not notice his condition and failed to start cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Five minutes after his heart stopped, they began the necessary lifesaving procedures, according to court documents.

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Sue Carter brought Joyce Gott to the Odin Nursing Home in 2005. Carter signed an arbitration agreement as Gott’s “legal representative.” Gott also signed an arbitration agreement with Odin after she was admitted to the nursing home facility.

Carter’s lawsuit filed against Odin claimed that the nursing home’s negligence caused Gott to die from gastrointestinal bleeding, anemia and respiratory failure.

Count I of Carter’s complaint was brought for Gott’s personal-injury claim preserved by the Illinois Survival Act. Count II of the complaint was for Gott’s heirs under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act.

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Tracy Spevak had undergone a LASIK surgery on her right eye once before. However, in January 2007, the defendant ophthalmologist did a LASIK surgery to attempt to enhance vision in Tracy’s right eye. During the surgery, Dr. Mark Golden, the defendant ophthalmologist, chose to re-cut the original LASIK flap, causing complications which necessitated additional surgeries on that eye.

Tracy now has permanent scar tissue in the central portion of her right eye. She has impaired vision, resulting in a kaleidoscope vision of lights at night, nausea, vertigo and migraine headaches. Her past medical bills totaled $8,274.

Tracy now will require a full or partial corneal transplant. At trial, the plaintiff argued that the medical standard of care required Dr. Golden to perform either a re-lifting of the original LASIK flap or a surface treatment.

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The Illinois Good Samaritan Act (745 ILCS 49/25 (West 2010)) states that a medical professional who, in good faith, “provides emergency care without fee to a person” should be immune from civil damages except in the case of willful or wanton misconduct. Immunity from suit was the position taken by Dr. Michael Murphy because his patient, who claimed he was injured by Murphy’s negligence, never got billed for the doctor’s emergency room services at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital. Dr. Murphy argued that he should be immune from liability for negligence after the patient filed a lawsuit against him.

The First District Appellate Court rejected that argument under the Illinois Good Samaritan Act because it found there was a genuine issue of material fact as to whether or not the doctor acted in “good faith” and found that since the doctor was compensated the act did not apply.

“Nowhere in the legislative history of the act is it ever stated that the intent of the act was to immunize emergency room physicians who are paid for their time,” Justice Stuart Palmer wrote in the court’s opinion.

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Lillie Teague, 74, underwent an angiogram, which is an x-ray exam that uses a dye and camera to look at the blood flow in an artery or vein. Many angiograms are used to examine the arteries near the heart, lungs, brain and the aorta. The procedure requires the use of a thin tube called a catheter placed into a blood vessel in the femoral artery at the groin. The purpose for the angiogram is to find a bulge in a blood vessel or the narrowing or blockage in a blood vessel.

In this case, Ms. Teague began bleeding from the place where the catheter was inserted; at the entry site of the femoral artery. Bleeding at the femoral artery is a known complication for an angiogram, which was done here.

The defendant nurse was alleged to have chosen not to properly and appropriately respond to the need to control the bleeding for up to 30 minutes. This caused massive blood loss. It was alleged in the plaintiff’s complaint that because of the loss of blood, Ms. Teague consequently suffered a stroke.

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Especially during the holidays, it is so important to visit loved ones, family members and friends who are residents of nursing home facilities, assisted living facilities and hospice care facilities. Nursing home residents who are surrounded by family and concerned friends always are uplifted. Too many times residents of nursing homes are lonely, become despondent, and their health declines.

Residents of nursing homes who choose not to take regular meals and may be lost at times by nursing home staff can also fall into depression. That’s why it is so important for family members, loved ones and friends to regularly visit the residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospice care centers.

Not only is it more likely that nursing home staff will respond to requests made by the resident and family members when visitors are frequent, but the general outlook of an elderly person or one recovering from injury or illness is significantly increased by the presence of family and friends. The more visits, the better, as a general rule.

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In a lawsuit resulting in a Cook County jury verdict, it was alleged by plaintiff Ryan Drummond that in August 2004, the defendant, Dr. Robert Brossard, a radiologist, chose not to correctly interpret x-rays of Drummond’s right hand. In addition, it was claimed that Dr. Brossard missed a fracture of the carpal bone of that same right hand. As a result of the doctor’s miss, Drummond was improperly treated with splinting for a sprain.

The fracture was later diagnosed on subsequent x-rays on Sept. 21, 2004. By that time, the window of opportunity for surgery to reduce the fracture had passed.

Drummond, 46, was a truck driver and sustained a nonunion of the trapezium, deformity to the base of the thumb, collapsed web space and development of severe arthritis. Drummond will need future arthroplasty surgery, which will mean a lengthy rehabilitation program.

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A class-action lawsuit brought by a named plaintiff, City of Livonia Employees’ Retirement System, has resulted in a $67.5 million settlement of the class-action lawsuit brought by former shareholders of Wyeth, Inc. The lawsuit alleged that shareholders were misled about the risks associated with the antidepressant, Pristiq.

The settlement was made public on Nov. 9, 2012, one month after Pfizer agreed to pay $164 million to settle a separate lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors about clinical trial results for the arthritis drug, Celebrex.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to approve Pristiq to treat “hot flashes” in post-menopausal women until it learned more about the potential for heart and liver side effects, Wyeth share value lost more than $7.6 billion.

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DGK saw her primary care physician, Dr. Raymond Di Pasquo, for recently developed skin lesions. After having seen Dr. Di Pasquo on Nov. 20, 2001, DGK consulted with a dermatologist, Dr. Robert Signore, who biopsied the lesion on her right lateral thorax on Dec. 3, 2001.

The biopsy was sent to Pinkus Dermatopathology Laboratory, where it was interpreted by the defendant physician, Dr. Darius Mehregan.

On Dec. 20, 2001, Dr. Mehregan reported that the specimen was squamous cell carcinoma or a type of skin cancer; a low-grade malignancy believed to have originated from the neck of the hair follicle. This kind of tumor is reported to rarely progress into an invasive squamous cell carcinoma. From there, DGK was referred to a surgeon specializing in chemosurgery for removal of skin tumors.

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A recent Will County jury verdict found Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill., and an internal medical doctor responsible for the death of a 43-year-old man. The children of J.E., the deceased, will receive $3.35 million after a jury returned a verdict of $4.5 million to the 43-year-old man’s four children.

J.E.’s children will receive $3.35 million because the family’s attorneys and defense counsel entered into a high/low agreement before the jury’s verdict. The high/low agreement is a way lawyers and clients protect a very high verdict or a very low verdict by agreeing in advance that the ceiling will be one amount and the floor another.

The attorney for J.E.’s children was William Cirignani, a partner of Cirignani Heller and Harman, who represented the estate.

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