In Tariq v. Naperville Radiologist, S.C., et al., 09 L 156, the plaintiff brought an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit against Edward Hospital and its radiologist for failure to diagnose cancer. The plaintiff claimed that the radiologist had failed to comment on an area of abnormality in her abdominal area on a chest CT scan. The CT scan was being taken as part of the plaintiff's screening for TB and was not told anything about the abnormal results.

Over the course of the next year the plaintiff began to experience weight loss and became fatigued. She returned for further workup, at which point a CT showed a 16 cm. abdominal tumor. In addition, the tumor had metastasized to other organs, including the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and colon.

The Illinois Attorney General's office was made aware of this double-bunking practice by two former University of Chicago Medical Center employees who traced the practice all the way back to 1997. Fortunately, as soon as the 2006 lawsuit was filed all doubling up of NICU patients ceased and has not resumed.

These bedding violations were against Illinois health laws and according to the attorney general placed some of the newborn infants at an increased risk for infections. However, a spokesperson from the University of Chicago Medical Center maintained that none of the NICU babies were at risk for any harm as a direct result of the over sized NICU and asserted that the hospital had only had its patients' best interests in mind. The lawsuit itself did not include any claims of Illinois medical malpractice by the Chicago hospital's NICU.

In Chris Medina v. Henry C. Echiverri, M.D., et al., No. 07-L-000820, the emergency room errors led to the eventual death of a young stroke victim. The 24 year-old mother presented to Central DuPage Hospital's emergency room complaining of sudden headaches, numbness to her right side, and problems speaking. However, despite the fairly obvious signs of a stroke, there were serious emergency room errors made and the correct diagnosis was not made for over 12 hours.

The decedent's medical status was evaluated by Dr. Echiverri, a member of the hospital's stroke team. However, despite specializing in stroke victims, Dr. Echiverri failed to diagnose and treat Medina's stroke. Instead her condition was diagnosed by a neuroradiologist. But by the time the decedent's stroke was diagnosed she was already significantly neurologically impaired and slipping into a coma. She died just 17 days after presenting to the emergency room.

Robinson is an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit wherein the decedent died about a month after having a second surgery to remove a cancerous colon mass. The second surgery was done just a mere five days after her initial surgery to remove the cancerous tumor because the surgeon incorrectly removed a non-cancerous tissue mass during the first operation.

The decedent's estate contended that her death was a result of the stress the second surgery placed on her body and that her death could have been avoided had the surgeon removed the correct tumor during the first procedure. However, the surgeon argued that his alleged medical negligence was in fact caused by a vague colonoscopy report which he relied upon in order to determine the location of the tumor, thereby including elements of radiology error. The surgeon also claimed the that preexisting medical conditions of chronic heart failure, diabetes, and renal failure contributed to the decedent's death, and that therefore he was not negligent.

While misdiagnosing a patient can often be the result of medical negligence, misdiagnosed cases do not always lead to medical malpractice lawsuits. Whether or not a lawsuit is brought hinges on the degree of damages, or the final outcome. In Rhodes, the decedent's estate alleged that the misdiagnosed patient died as a result of the incorrect diagnosis. However, if a delay in diagnosis had only led to some discomfort or minor inconvenience on the part of the decedent then there would not likely have been grounds for a medical malpractice claim.

In Rhodes, the decedent's estate was critical of the emergency department's errors at Weiss Memorial Hospital, specifically its misdiagnosis of a seizure disorder. The decedent had presented to Weiss's emergency room after collapsing on a train platform. The initial doctor suspected that his collapse was due to seizures and ordered a wide range of tests to confirm this diagnosis. However, before the results came back, the initial doctor's shift was up, at which time the decedent's care was transferred to an additional emergency medicine physician.

Another issue in the Illinois nursing home negligence case was whether the nursing home had taken adequate steps to prevent the decedent from falling while in the nursing home's care. Upon her admission to the Mercy Health Care Rehab Ctr., the decedent, Alberta Jones, was at risk for falling due to a recent stroke. During her time at Mercy Rehab, Jones did in fact fall and required a brace to support her right femur.

The brace caused her skin to breakdown when the device rubbed up against her leg. Over a period of weeks, nursing home employees and nurses chose not to monitor this patient who then developed osteomyelitis, a bone infection. Skin ulcers that have spread uncontrollably can cause osteomyelitis if the skin breaks down so far that the bone is exposed to air. If a patient develops osteomyelitis from skin ulcers it is normally a red flag that the nursing home did not implement a proper skin care plan and is an indicator of nursing home negligence.

In addition to providing the public with health information regarding brain tumors, the Mary E. Smith Foundation awards several annual scholarships. The Mary E. Smith Foundation is now adding to their community outreach goals with its 1st Annual Mary E. Smith Tumor Awareness Walk. The walk details are as follows:

When: Saturday, August 14, 2010. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., with the walk starting at 9:00 a.m.

Where: The Community Walk Path, 4200 W. 183rd St., Country Club Hills, IL 60478. (Next to the Farmer’s Market at the Country Club Hills Theater)

Cost: $10 for 1-mile walk and free T-shirt (children under 12 free)

The plan affects roughly two dozen nursing homes that are specifically designated as Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) and the 4,500 psychiatric patients who reside there. The plan proposes to offer a screening to any psychiatric patients who wish to leave; those patients who pass the screening are eligible for relocation to subsidized living communities. These communities would have staff available to provide therapy, life-skill training, job training, and substance abuse programs.

Goldberg alleges that Rush's orthopedic center operated as a business that emphasized quantity over quality, a claim that is supported by further allegations that the during 2004 and 2005 the orthopedic center regularly overbooked its operating rooms and relied heavily on its residents to perform surgeries. The assumption is that by overbooking these rooms the surgical center's patients were at a heightened risk for surgical errors and potential medical malpractice.

According to Medicare billing rules teaching surgeons, like the six surgeons named in this lawsuit, are required to be present in the operating room during key portions of the procedures. The case was filed as a whistle-blower lawsuit because Medicare is a federal institution, and as such falls under the federal government's umbrella. A whistle-blower claim is one in which the government has been victimized, such as by falsifying federal billing records.

One of the main hospitals cited in the report as potentially giving "patients a double scan when a single scan is all they need" is Edward Hospital, located in Naperville, Illinois. Edward Hospital officials were reportedly surprised to learn that their CT scans exceeded the national average and have since launched an investigation into its radiology department policies and procedures.

The new government reports on Edward Hospital and other medical institutions nationwide can be found at the government-run website Hospital Compare. This informative website allows patients to search different hospitals by region and compare the quality of care provided by each. Medical information websites like Hospital Compare allow patients to be their own medical advocate and make informed decisions about their care and treatment.

As a diabetic, the plaintiff was already at a heightened risk for developing foot and toe infections. However, the plaintiff had also recently been placed on immunosuppressive medications following a pancreas and kidney transplant, placing him at an even greater risk for developing infections. Because of his increased risk for developing a foot or toe infection, the plaintiff sought medical assistance when he stubbed his toe on a piece of furniture.

While the plaintiff would normally follow up with his regular physician regarding any potential infection issues, his doctor was out of town. So the plaintiff opted to seek treatment at the emergency room. At that time the plaintiff was seen by the defendant doctor who diagnosed a breakdown of the skin in the area of the injury and prescribed oral antibiotics.

The Chicago medical malpractice case was brought by a Chicago man who developed paralysis from the waist down after being discharged from Chicago's Mt. Sinai Hospital with an ongoing spinal infection. While the Chicago hospital had diagnosed the infection and began treating it with IV antibiotics, it discharged the patient before the infection was gone.

Two weeks after his discharge, the Chicago native was unable to control his bladder or walk and was rushed to Rush University Medical Center. The ongoing spinal infection had continued to eat away at the man's vertebrae, which resulted in the removal of portions of his spine and ribs. The plaintiff underwent six surgeries during three months of hospitalization and was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The plaintiff brought a medical malpractice claim against the employees of Chicago's Mt. Sinai Hospital. However, because the hospital's employees were agents of the U.S. Public Health Service the Cook County medical malpractice case fell under the Federal Tort Claims Act. According to rules of the Act, the federal government was substituted for the hospital and its workers in the medical malpractice claim. The federal government admitted liability on behalf of the hospital. Therefore the only remaining issue for the judge to rule on was non-economic damages.

The Appellate Court reviewed Hemminger v. Nehring, et al., No. 3-08-0751, to determine whether the Tort Immunity Act immunized the defendants against allegations of medical negligence contained within plaintiff's complaint. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that the defendant's employee was negligent when she failed to correctly interpret the decedent's Pap smear, which showed that the decedent had cervical cancer. As a result of the defendant's negligence, the decedent's cancer went undiagnosed for six months. By the time her cervical cancer was diagnosed it was classified as Stage IIIb and eventually led to her death.

In response, the defendants filed motions for summary judgment, which if granted would result in the case's dismissal. In its motions, the defendants argued that they were immune from any liability or negligence under the Tort Immunity Act. They also argued that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiff failed to file the complaint within the one year statue of limitations set out for municipal entities. The plaintiff's complaint was instead filed within two years of the medical negligence, which would have met the statute of limitations for a non-government entity.

The Illinois nursing home reform will begin by tightening psychological screening and required criminal background checks for new nursing home residents in order to determine which potentially dangerous residents should be placed in secure therapeutic wards that are separated from the rest of the nursing home facility. In order to address potentially dangerous residents already housed in Illinois nursing homes and limit occurrences of nursing home abuse, the reform measures will transfer thousands of mentally disturbed patients into smaller units structured to provide better supervision and therapy for those patients.

In addition, those nursing homes that admit mentally ill patients will be required to obtain an additional certification that demonstrates the facility and its staff are equipped to effectively monitor and treat these residents. A current problem with Illinois nursing homes is that they are understaffed and lack adequate training to deal with non-geriatric patients. These new standards will effect to combat these potential causes of Illinois nursing home abuse.

Once breast cancer is diagnosed, the typical treatment for breast cancer involves surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. However, a new study unveiled at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) could change the standard for breast cancer treatment. TARGIT-A study is an international study of breast cancer clinical trials involving over 2,000 breast cancer patients. The participants were women 45 years-old and up who had been diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer and were undergoing breast-conserving surgery.

Traditionally patients who elect for breast-conserving surgery undergo whole breast external radiation therapy for up to 6 1/2 weeks following surgery. However, the TARGIT-A clinical trials studied the effects of targeted radiation administered during the surgery. The radiation is administered in a single dose and targets only the area of the breast with cancer instead of the whole breast. Half of the studies participants underwent the traditional post-op radiation while the other half received the targeted radiation therapy during surgery. The TARGIT-A study found that the targeted therapy group did somewhat better overall than the traditional radiation group.