A recent Cook County case has held that a hospital has no responsibility to a patient for the negligence of a doctor on its staff where the fine-print consent form provided by the hospital stated that its physicians were not employees of the hospital. The patient had not read the form before signing it because, as he testified, he was in too much pain. In this case, the Appellate Court protected the hospital, even though its physicians negligently treated the patient, and allowing him to suffer a ruptured aneurysm because its consent form stated:  “I have been informed and understand that physicians providing services to me at Ingalls, such as my personal physician, Emergency Department and Urgent Aid physicians, radiologists, pathologists, anesthesiologists, on-call physicians, consulting physicians, surgeons, and allied health care providers working with those physicians are not employees, agents or apparent agents of Ingalls but are independent medical practitioners who have been permitted to use Ingalls’ facilities for the care and treatment of their patients. I further understand that each physician will bill me separately for their services.  Frezados v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, 2013 IL App (1st) 121835 (June 5, 2013).

If you or a loved one has been injured by a doctor’s or hospital’s negligence, we may be able to help.

Please contact the attorneys of Lane Brown, LLC, or call us at 312-332-1400 to speak with us about your options. We can help. To learn more about Lane Brown, please visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

 

We found this video on a hospital website. We thought it was well done and will be adding it to our website. Considering that strokes kill almost 130,000 Americans a year (1 in every 19 deaths) and that strokes affect 795,000 people in the US every year….we thought it would be worthy of sharing. Not only will it be informative for the lay person, but it has a catchy tune.

If you or a family member suffers stroke-like symptoms….Remember to act FAST!

If you or a loved one has suffered serious injuries as a result of an improperly managed stroke, we may be able to help. Contact the attorneys at Lane Brown, LLC now.

 

New litigation is emerging as a result of one of the nation’s most widely used drugs and number one cause of acute liver failure in the US: Tylenol. Evidence suggests that severe personal injuries involving acute liver failure, and in some cases death, can result from Tylenol ingestion. Tylenol, the common pain and fever reducing drug, is the brand name of the drug, acetaminophen. You can find acetaminophen in a wide range of products, both over-the-counter and prescription medications. Acetaminophen is one of the most commonly used drugs in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration advises users not to take more than 4,000 milligrams of acetaminophen per day. Officials caution that drug users mistakenly consume more than the recommended limit because they take two different medications containing acetaminophen without realizing it. This sometimes occurs because drug companies will use the abbreviation APAP for acetaminophen.

The following is a list of common drugs which contain acetaminophen. Be careful when taking more than one of these medications at a time, and always look at the drug information on the label.

•Acephen® Rectal Suppository
•Actifed®
•Anacin®
•Anacin®
•Anexsia®
•Apacet®
•Apara®
•Apra®
•Benadryl®
•Capital and Codeine®
•Cepacol®
•Co-Gesic
•Conacetol®
•Contac®
•Coricidin®
•Darvocet®
•Dayquil®
•Dimetapp®
•Dolono®
•Dristan®
•Endocet®
•Esgic-Plus®
•Excedrin®
•Feverall®
•Feverall® Rectal Suppository
•Fioricet®
•Fioricet with codeine®
•Formula 44®
•Genapap®
•Genebs®
•Gericet®
•Goody’s® Powders
•Halenol®
•Hycotab
•Hydrocet®
•Hydrocodone Bitartrate®
•Infantaire®
•Lopap®
•Lortab®
•Mapap®
•Mapap® Rectal Suppository
•Mardol®
•Masophen®
•Meda Cap®
•Midol®
•Neopap® Supprettes Rectal Suppository
•Norco ®
•Nyquil®
•Oxycet®
•Pain-Eze®
•Panadol®
•Panadol®
•Panex®
•Paramol®
•Pediapap®
•Percocet®
•Phenaphen®
•Phrenilin with Caffeine and Codeine®
•Q-Pap®
•Redutemp®
•Ridenol®
•Robitussin®
•Roxicet®
•Saint Joseph® Aspirin-Free
•Sedapap®
•Silapap®
•Singlet®
•Sinutab®
•S-T Febrol®
•Sudafed®
•Tactinal®
•Talacen
•Tapanol®
•Tempra®
•Theraflu®
•T-Panol®
•Triaminic®
•Tycolene®
•Tylenol with Codeine No. 3®
•Tylenol with Codeine No. 4®
•Tylenol®
•Tylophen®
•Tylox®
•Ultracet
•Uni-Ace®
•Uniserts® Rectal Suppository®
•Vanquish®
•Vicks®
•Vicodin®
•Vitapap®
•Zicam®
•Zydone®

If you or a loved one has suffered liver damage, liver failure, or other acute liver injury within a short time of using Tylenol or other medications containing acetominophen, you may be able to take action. Please contact the attorneys of Lane Brown, LLC, or call us at 312-332-1400 to speak with us about your options. We can help. To learn more about Lane Brown, LLC, please visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. At the first sign of heart problems, we turn to a cardiologist for help. In order to diagnose and determine the best treatment for a heart condition, cardiologists often order a cardiac catheterization procedure. While necessary for many, the procedure is not without risks including the following:

  • Excessive bleeding at the site where the catheterization tube enters the artery
  • Potential blood clots in the arm or leg, which may lead to amputation
  • Internal bleeding into the abdomen in the event the artery is during the procedure

 

A cardiac catheterization procedure serves as a vital diagnostic tool to evaluate the condition of the heart. However, if a patient comes into the emergency room with symptoms that mimic a heart condition, such as indigestion, or abnormal, yet inconclusive, stress test results, this test may be unnecessary and extremely risky.

Sometimes, during a diagnostic cardiac catheterization procedure, doctors find a narrow or blocked artery. They are often able to clear the blockage right away using arterial stents. This procedure, while it can be life saving, also carries risks such as the following:

  • Equipment could cause a clogged blood vessel, which may block necessary oxygen from the heart
  • Equipment could puncture the coronary artery
  • Patients could experience complications including heart attack, stroke, and death. According to one study, one or two out of every 100 patients experience complications.
  • Stents can cause a build-up of scar tissue at their location. They can also cause blood clots to develop, which could cause a massive heart attack.

 

If you recently had a cardiac catheterization procedure, and suffered injuries afterwards, you may be the victim of medical negligence. Only an experienced Chicago medical malpractice attorney at Lane Brown can evaluate the details of your injuries, consult with qualified medical professionals, and determine if you have a legal claim. Call us today at 312-332-1400 for a free case evaluation. We are here to help.

 

 

A jury in Los Angeles last Friday awarded $8.3 million to a man who accused a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson of knowingly marketing a faulty hip implant that was later recalled. It was the first of approximately 10,000 lawsuits which have already been brought, with many more sure to come throughout at least the United States. The basis for the cases is its design which places metal on metal components in a way that can cause metal poisoning and other health issues. The Wall Street Journal noted that, in a statement issued after Friday’s ruling, DePuy spokesperson Lorie Gawreluk said the company maintains that the ASR XL hip implants were not designed defectively and it is planing to appeal the decision, based on the results of post-trial motions.  The jurors who heard the case, however, clearly disagreed.  After the verdict, one juror reportedly stated that he “wanted punitive damages”, citing “evidence that DePuy took too long to correct problems found with the device.” In August, 2010, Johnson & Johnson is reported to have recalled 93,000 of the implants, when it said 12 percent failed within five years. Meanwhile, analysts are projecting that overall, lawsuits over the device “could cost J&J billions of dollars to resolve.”  For more information about our firm, and how you can take action for your injuries, please contact us at 312-332-1400 or visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

 

 

Your parent or other loved one is admitted to a hospital or nursing home because they are ill, or have been injured. They are there because they need assistance or care that they can’t get in their home.  Unfortunately, many times patients in hospitals and nursing homes aren’t given the attention they need, and suffer injuries because of malpractice or negligence in their hospital or medical care.

Another common concern for hospitalized patients is posed by the risk of falls.  Patients are often disoriented, weak or sedated. Common issues associated with nurses and hospitals are falls due to the lack of the use of rails or supervision during transfers. An elderly confused patient, or a patient narcotized with pain medicine or sedatives, requires full length side rails up so they can’t fall out of bed.

Rails can be important aids in the protection of patients who may be combative, uncooperative or unstable patient. The failure to use rails appropriately may be the basis for a negligence claim.  If the nurses’ notes show they did not raise the side rails, or if witnesses establish that the rails were not raised, and the patient falls out of bed and injures himself, those injuries may have been the result of negligence on the part of the hospital and the nurses. Physicians may also be responsible if the doctor was aware that the patient needed the protections afforded by side rails, but failed to order that they be used.

Nurses have an independent duty to ensure the safety of their patients, so you should look to examine the conduct of all three potential causes for the injury: the nurse, the hospital and the doctor. Nurses are trained, and need to be able to determine for themselves whether or not their patients need side rails.  If they do, they can and must follow good nursing practice and hospital policy and raise the rails themselves, even without a doctor’s order. In fact, the question of when to use side rails is or should be indicated in the hospital rules of almost every hospital, as set forth by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH). If the hospital accepts elderly Medicare-insured patients, that hospital must be certified by the JCAH, and the JCAH states that with elderly, confused, or drugged patients, side rails must be used.

Were the Nurses Too Busy?

Sometimes, the nurses are just too busy to give their patients the care they need.  Consider whether there was an emergency that required their attention to other patients.  Maybe their unit was understaffed. Through the litigation process known as “discovery”, we can find this information, and obtain the “nursing orders” in effect for all the patients on that nursing unit (floor or ward) and their diagnoses. If the nursing unit was understaffed by a hospital looking to make higher profits from lower labor costs, it’s often easy to see why patients fail to receive the nursing and hospital care they need.

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