Surgery Complications Lead to Woman's Wrongful Death
Situation:
Surgery Complications Lead to Woman's Wrongful Death
We represented the adult children of a 55 year-old woman who suffered a head injury when she fell down some concrete steps at a friend's house and went into a coma. The woman was rushed to Cook County Hospital where she had surgery to insert a tracheostomy tube through her neck, into her trachea and down to her lungs so she could breathe.
After about a month, while still at County Hospital, the woman woke up from her coma and started to breathe on her own, so the tube was removed. About a week later, because of continued breathing difficulties, the woman's doctors decided that the tube had to be surgically reinserted again.
Prior to the surgery, however, even though the doctors knew that there was some type of blockage in her trachea that was causing the breathing difficulties; they decided not to do a CT scan, which may have shown the blockage. Instead, they went into surgery blindly.
When the surgeon attempted to reinsert the tube, the tip of the tube became lodged into some tissue in her trachea, preventing any air from passing through the tube and essentially causing the woman's suffocation and death.
When she died, our client's mother was unmarried, unemployed, and essentially homeless. She and her 20-year-old daughter (and the daughter's two children) had been living with relatives or at shelters in the few years before her death. When the daughter first came to Lipkin & Higgins looking for our help, things looked pretty bleak.
There were two "expert surgeons" who had reviewed the medical records and told her that she had no case. Finally, we found a Harvard educated ENT surgeon from Boston who reviewed the records and determined that a CT scan was required here because it probably would have revealed where the blockage in the trachea was so the County surgeon could have bypassed it. We then filed a wrongful death suit against the County.
Throughout the case, the County claimed that its doctors did nothing wrong and refused to accept responsibility for the woman's death. The County's expert witness, a renowned Chicago ENT surgeon, concluded that a CT scan would not have made a difference here. Instead, he claimed that our client's mother, a life-long smoker and drinker, died because of a pre-existing poor heart and lung condition rather than anything the County doctors did wrong.
Successful Resolution: $1,000,000
The County fought the case hard. They brought a Motion to have the case thrown out of court based upon the Tort Immunity Act. They argued that the law of Illinois gave the County immunity from liability in cases like this. Lipkin & Higgins vigorously opposed the Motion and, after months of briefs and court hearings, the judge denied the Motion and allowed the case to go to trial.
The County never made any settlement offers. After all of the investigation, discovery, and Motions were completed, the case finally went to trial. After a two week trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of our client for $1 million.
