Practice Areas and Legal Definitions

Medical Malpractice:
Medical malpractice is the failure of a health care provider to follow the accepted standards of practice of his or her profession in the community where the service is rendered. If a physician was careless, lacked proper skills, or disregarded standardized rules resulting in injury to a patient, a jury may find the health care provider liable for negligence. Hospitals can also be held liable for the negligence of their employees, including staff nurses and technicians.

Examples of Medical Malpractice include:

• Failing to diagnose a tumor while reading an x-ray
• Puncturing a nearby organ or tissue during surgery
• Failing to order necessary and appropriate medical tests
• Failing to diagnose a condition in time to treat it properly
• Failing to refer a case to a medical specialist
• Prescribing incorrect medication
• Brain Injury
• Birth Injury
• Cerebral Palsy
• Incorrect diagnosis that results in a failure to treat a medical condition
• Failing to properly administer anesthesia
• Emergency room negligence
• Dental Malpractice
• Cosmetic Surgery Malpractice

Cerebral Palsy:
Cerebral palsy is a permanent brain injury that can occur during birth or in the months following birth and is one of the most common birth injuries in the United States. Cerebral palsy patients are subject to limited motor skills, speech difficulties and learning disabilities. When cerebral palsy occurs as the result of medical malpractice, the responsible party inflicting said injuries can be held legally responsible.

Misdiagnosis:
Sometimes medical professionals negligently misdiagnose a patient. Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of a medical condition can have debilitating effects on a patient and in some cases misdiagnosis can be fatal. We rely on medical rofessionals to provide knowledgeable information and competent diagnoses. When patients suffer from negligent healthcare or the misdiagnosis of a serious medical condition they deserve answers.

Wrongful Death:
A wrongful death occurs when a person is killed due to the negligence or misconduct of another individual, company or organization. One of the most frequent causes of wrongful death is medical malpractice. A legal action for wrongful death belongs to the decedent's immediate family members, usually a surviving spouse and children, and sometimes parents. Under certain circumstances, unrelated minor children living with and supported by the decedent may also bring a claim for wrongful death. In order to bring a successful wrongful death cause of action, the following elements must be present:

• The death of a human being caused by another's negligent or intentional conduct.
• The survival of family members who are suffering the loss of financial support, love, care, comfort, supervision, guidance, household assistance and general society previously provided by the deceased.

The general rule in wrongful death cases is that one is entitled to recover both economic and non-economic damages which are suffered as a result of the loss of a loved one. Economic damages in a wrongful death case include an award for the financial contributions which the decedent would have made to his or her spouse, children and/or parents had he or she survived. It also includes the recovery for funeral service expenses in memory of the decedent and for burial cost. Non-economic damages include loss of love, society, companionship, comfort, affection, solace or moral support.

Defective Drugs or Products:
The sad truth is that some giant pharmaceutical companies and a handful of medical device manufacturers have put the public at risk by bringing dangerous or defective products to market. A medical product may be considered defective because of a manufacturing or design defect. In addition to design and manufacturing defects, insufficient warning of consumers as to possible side effects can also serve as the basis of litigation for both medical products and drugs.

Often, when a person is injured as a result of medical treatment, the first assumption often is that the physician or other health care provider made a mistake. In many cases, however, it is learned that the doctor did nothing wrong and the injury was caused by a defective or dangerous medication or medical device. In such a case, the claim for injuries should actually be brought against the manufacturer of the drug or device.

Anesthetic Errors:
When you go in to surgery, the last face you usually see is that of the anesthesiologist, who will regulate your consciousness during the operation. The anesthesiologist is responsible for maintaining your air way and monitoring your physical condition while under anesthesia so that you may successfully be brought back to consciousness following the procedure. When anesthesiologists make errors in administering anesthesia,maintaining your air way and monitoring your physical condition the results are usually catastrophic, including coma and death.

Birth Injuries:
Occasionally during the birth process, the baby may suffer a physical injury that is simply the result of being born. This is sometimes called birth trauma or birth injury. One major cause of birth injuries is oxygen deprivation, which commonly occurs when the umbilical cord is compressed and/or twisted in the birth process. The other main cause is mechanical trauma which may occur when the baby assumes an unusual position at the time of birth. Complications in the process of pregnancy, labor and delivery can result in a wide variety of complications for a newborn baby. Birth injuries vary greatly - from very minor to being so severe as to cause permanent injury or the death of the infant.

Some common types of birth injuries include temporary paralysis, Cerebral Palsy, brain damage, Erb's Palsy and Brachial Plexus Palsy. The most serious birth injuries involve damage to the infant's brain, causing brain damage, traumatic brain injury, seizures and mental retardation. These brain injuries are caused by oxygen deprivation or bleeding inside the brain from trauma during pregnancy, labor or delivery.

Sometimes the birth injuries are just natural circumstances of delivery but there are also many circumstances where brain damage or brain injuries are caused by mistakes made by doctors, hospitals or other medical professionals during the delivery process.

Failure to Diagnosis:
Failure to diagnose is a term in the medical and legal communities that represents the failure of a medical provider to detect a condition before serious or fatal consequences. In many instances, particularly those involving cancer, early detection is a key element to successful treatment.  A missed diagnosis can make treating a disease much more difficult, and in some cases, render successful treatment impossible.

When the failure to diagnose is negligent on the part of the medical provider, if the provider using a reasonable standard of care should have detected the problem sooner, a medical malpractice claim might be appropriate.

These cases are generally traumatic for all involved, the patient as well as the family members who have to try to deal with a future that might have been quite different if only a cancer or another medical condition were diagnosed in time.

Breast Cancer:
Patients may complain of a lump, mass or cyst in one of their breasts during a doctor’s visit, or the physician may notice a lump during an examination. When permitted to grow unimpeded, the cancer spreads and can completely devastate a person's life. Sometimes physicians fail to take such patient complaints seriously or to properly follow up with additional diagnostic tests, including mammograms, sonograms and biopsies.

It is the responsibility of treating physician and technicians to provide adequate medical care for their patients, including correctly interpreting symptoms, ordering follow-up tests in a timely manner and correctly reading test results. The failure to take the proper precautions, and to perform each of the procedures correctly, as other medical personnel would have done, is medical malpractice.

Medication Errors:
Another area of medical malpractice involves the medication and prescription errors doctors, nurses and pharmacists can make. Unfortunately, patients are sometimes given the wrong prescription or dosage, with very serious, often deadly, results.

Medication errors can happen for several reasons, such as the doctor’s illegible handwriting, the pharmacist’s drug dispensing error, the nurse giving the wrong medication or amount, or the doctor not asking all of the pertinent questions while examining the patient. Most commonly, the type of medication error involves not the type, but the dose. If the dose is too little, the medication is ineffective. If the does is too much, the medication may have serious side effects that can result in serious injury or death.

Also, if a patient is taking more than one medication, it is the healthcare provider’s responsibility to monitor his or her drug intake. A mix of the wrong medications can be fatal in some cases. If a doctor or nurse is especially careless, they won’t test for or ask about allergies, which can lead to serious injury or death.

Nursing Home Neglect:
Nursing home neglect includes medical malpractice and careless treatment leading to broken bones, malnutrition, dehydration, bedsores, and serious illness. It can also include the failure to supervise staff and physical or sexual assaults by other residents of staff.

The number of doctors who care for nursing home patients is inadequate But this does not give doctors and other health care providers the right to ignore or not fully care for nursing home patients.

Surgical Errors:
Surgical errors that cause injury may give rise to medical malpractice claims. Surgical errors can result in permanent complications and death. The following are some examples or surgical errors:

• Failure to properly diagnose a medical condition which requires emergent surgery.
• Failure to properly consult with specialists.
• Failure to properly monitor the patient’s condition post-operatively to assess for any problems requiring medical and/or surgical intervention.
• Failure to order proper diagnostic testing
• Wrong-site surgery - operating in or on the wrong area of the body.
• Surgical instrument left in the body - retractors, sponges and surgical towels all have been left in patients’ bodies following surgery.
• Misdiagnosis issues, such as surgery unrelated to the patient's correct diagnosis.
• Failure to properly monitor the patient’s condition during surgery.

If you or someone you know anywhere in Illinois needs the assistance of an experienced Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorney, call Joseph Dooley today at 866-745-6191, or complete the contact form provided on this site to schedule your free consultation.

Professional Profile

MEMBERS OF THE FIRM:

Joseph M. Dooley, III

EDUCATION:

• IIT Chicago-Kent, J.D., 1988
• Southern Methodist University (B.A./B.S., 1983)

• 1988, Illinois
• 1989, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois including Trial Bar
• 1998, U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit

• Personal Injury
• Medical Malpractice
• Products Liability
• Wrongful Death
• Automobile Accidents

• Illinois State (Member, Joint ISBA/CBA Committee on Unauthorized Practice of Law, 1998) and American Bar Associations
• American Association for Justice
  
• Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
• The Society of Trial Lawyers
• National Trial Advocacy Team, 1987, 1988
• Board of Commissioners, Winnetka Park District, 1993-2003 (President 1995-2002)