Chicago Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

The Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll read some disturbing news lately. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois health officials have found same-day surgery centers to pose deadly health risks. Some of the routine culprits include doctors who dangle surgical masks around their necks and leave their hair exposed during surgery. However, Illinois inspectors have identified numerous other short cuts that lead to the spread of dangerous bacteria and viruses, including failures to properly sterilize surgical instruments before and after surgeries.

What is most disturbing is that out of the "21 Illinois surgery centers inspected over the past year, 14 — or two-thirds — were cited for infection-control problems." Since a 2008 hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas, which officials believe to be linked to unsafe clinic practices, federal health officials have stepped up inspection guidelines for surgical centers. Still, thirty-six Illinois surgical centers have yet to be inspected under the new guidelines.

What can you do to protect yourself? Always choose accredited surgical centers before undergoing any surgical procedures. You can also contact the Illinois Department of Public Health to find out if a particular surgical center has had problems in the past.

Continue reading "RISK OF INFECTION AT SURGICAL CENTERS" »

Illinois residents can now find out more about the doctors who treat them. In fact, patients have access to some pretty significant background information on doctors, including whether they have ever been fired, convicted of a crime or submitted a malpractice payment anytime in the last five years. As Chicago medical malpractice attorneys, we applaud Governor Pat Quinn for signing the Patients' Right to Know Act, which provides patients the right to investigate the doctors who treat them. According to the Chicago Tribune, doctors have lobbied against the Act for over ten years, but thanks to a Tribune special report, which found "state regulators allowed dangerous doctors, even those convicted of sex crimes, to continue practicing," the Act was finally signed into law.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) will have two months to gather and post doctor information on its website, http://idfpr.com/. Doctors must inform IDFPR if they are convicted of Class A misdemeanors or felonies. However, another law will soon "require prosecutors to inform the state agency when physicians are convicted of sex crimes, forcible felonies and misdemeanor batteries against patients."

If you have suffered a personal injury after undergoing medical treatment, the Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll may be able to help. We are experienced trial attorneys and settlement negotiators. We have recovered million-dollar settlements and verdicts on behalf of our clients in personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits.

Continue reading "CHICAGO MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ATTORNEY COMMENTS ON THE PATIENTS' RIGHT TO KNOW ACT" »

"[A]s often as 40 times a week in the United States, patients come out of surgery to learn that their doctor operated on the wrong body part, did the wrong procedure or mixed them up with another patient,"

reported the Chicago Sun-Times.

40 times a week! Seriously? Come on! Errors like this, also known as "wrong-site surgeries," are unnecessary and easily preventable. The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare undertook enforcing a universal protocol to prevent wrong-site surgeries nearly ten years ago. The protocol "includes taking simple precautions such as marking the surgical site and taking a timeout before the first incision to make sure the right patient is getting the right procedure."

Why then do innocent patients continue to fall victim to wrong-site surgeries? The Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll have learned firsthand that medical care providers perform surgeries on patients with inaccurate or incomplete documentation, while others become distracted in the operating room. Some use the wrong pen to mark an incision site, causing a wrong-site surgery. Unapproved pen marks may wash away before surgery, leaving the surgeon without a precise incision point. Sad, yes! Sad, but true!!

It is vital that surgeons and surgical staff follow standardized safety procedures during each and every surgery.

You may be eligible to file a medical malpractice lawsuit if a health care provider performed a wrong-site surgery on you or someone you love.

Continue reading "WRONG-SITE SURGERIES " »

We go to hospitals to get well when we are ill or injured; unfortunately, we all know that hospitals and doctors can actually be the culprits of other potential medical issues that may arise during hospital stays. In fact, Medicare has released its first study on patient safety, detailing the many things that can go wrong for hospital patients, including but not limited to, unnecessary falls, hospital-acquired infections, incompatible blood infusions, bed sores, and other potential medical malpractice issues. Medicare acquired data for the study by reviewing the hospital bills of elderly and disabled patients between October 2008 and June 2010.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

All of Chicago's top medical centers appear on the list of hospitals with safety issues, to one extent or another. For instance, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, the University of Chicago Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center all reported higher-than-average numbers of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections associated with catheters. Officials at each medical center questioned the government's method of counting infections while acknowledging mistakes in data they submitted to Medicare.

How can you protect yourself from further illness or injury while treating in a hospital? Be an advocate for yourself. Ask questions. Be proactive. If the treatment that you are receiving in the hospital requires the use of anesthesia or sedation, designate a family member or friend as an advocate. Patient safety issues are a consequence of the breakdown of communication between patient and health care provider.

Continue reading "MEDICARE RELEASES CHILLING PATIENT SAFETY DATA" »

A new study reports that repeated concussions may contribute to the development of symptoms that mimic Lou Gehrig's disease, which is also known as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The study found similarities between concussion related brain abnormality and the abnormalities of brains of patients with diseases that affect the regions of the brain responsible for movement, like Lou Gehrig's disease. The study compared the autopsy slides of brains and spinal cords of twelve professional athletes who had suffered concussions with the slides of twelve similarly matched people who had died of Lou Gehrig's disease. The study found distinctive protein abnormalities in the brains of three professional athletes who had developed motor symptoms that were diagnosed as Lou Gehrig's disease. The same abnormalities were present in the brains of all of the people who had died of Lou Gherig's disease, suggesting that Lou Gherig's disease could be caused by repeated concussions.

The study is significant, because of the roughly 30,000 people in the United States who have been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, only about 5% to 10% have carry the distinctive genetic mutation associated with the disease. The other 27,000 people have no explanation as to why they have the disease. Scientists say that the study is too small to be conclusive, however the findings are important and will likely lead to more research.

Read more about the study.

A recent study performed by researchers at MD Cancer Center in Houston found that preventive mastectomy is more than what is needed for most women diagnosed with breast cancer. The study did find, however, that survival rates increased with preventive mastectomy for a specific subset of breast cancer patients, as TIME magazine reports. Women under age 50, who had early stage cancer (stage I or II) and tumors that were negative for the estrogen receptor saw an increase in their chances of surviving to five years. Less than 10% of women fit this criteria, and the increase, 4.8%, was small as compared with women who did not have preventive mastectomy. Most women, of the 107,000 involved in the study, did not obtain a survival benefit from having the unaffected breast removed.

The results of the study will help women diagnosed with breast cancer to make a more informed decision when faced with the difficult options concerning whether to undergo a mastectomy not only to remove a cancerous breast, but also the other, unaffected breast as a preventive measure. Cancer detected in one breast has a tendency to spread to the other breast and studies have documented the the reduction in recurrence of cancer when both breasts are removed. This study is the first to connect this decision with the chances of survival.