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Recent Blog Posts
Signs Your Loved One is Being Sexually Abused in a Nursing Home
When an elderly person or individual with disabilities cannot take care of themselves, moving that person to a nursing home is often the next step. We trust that nursing home facilities will be safe, clean, and staffed with compassionate workers. However, some nursing homes fail to meet these expectations. In extreme cases, the nursing home staff even intentionally harm residents.
It is hard to believe that nursing home staff would prey upon vulnerable residents, but sometimes, the very people who are supposed to protect residents are the perpetrators of abuse. Physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse are not uncommon in nursing homes in Illinois and across the United States. If you suspect that your loved one was sexually abused or otherwise harmed while living in a nursing home, do not wait to take action.
Red Flags That Could Be Signs of Sexual Abuse
Nursing home residents are often frail and in poor health. Many suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other ailments that reduce their ability to communicate with others. Sadly, some people take advantage of this vulnerability. Understaffing, inadequate staff training, and negligent hiring practices such as failing to perform background checks can increase the chances of abuse.
Should I Sue My Cab Driver if He was Responsible for an Accident that Injured Me?
The Chicago metropolitan area is heavily congested and can be very difficult to drive and park in and around downtown. For many people, occasionally taking cabs is a much more cost-effective and timely way to navigate the city. While most taxi drivers are cautious and get their passengers safely to their destination, many people are injured in taxi crashes every year. As with any other car crash, taxi accidents can cause serious injuries and even death. If your cab driver was responsible for a car accident in which you or a loved one were injured, you may want to meet with an experienced Chicago taxi crash attorney.
What Should I Do After a Taxi Crash?
Immediately following a taxi crash, make sure you are safe. Even if you initially feel okay, the adrenaline that our bodies release after car crashes can make it difficult to feel pain. Getting assessed by a physician is always a good idea after a car accident.
Can I Sue the CTA if I Was Hit By a Bus?
Chicago has an affordable and accessible public transit system made of buses and the famous “L” train lines. While these vehicles are useful and necessary, they are large, numerous, and often in a hurry. Because buses are so much larger than other pedestrians, cyclists, or vehicles in the road, they can present serious dangers when drivers are careless, tired, or distracted. If you have been injured by a Chicago Transit Authority bus, consider meeting with an experienced CTA bus accident attorney to explore your options.
CTA Bus Crashes Are Surprisingly Common
A 2015 study seeking to investigate how often CTA buses crash discovered that, on average, a CTA bus is involved in a crash every 36 hours. In addition to crashes with cars in the street, CTA buses also hit pedestrians with their mirrors and sideswipe them on street corners. While CTA buses are not always at fault in these crashes, these statistics illustrate just how common potentially dangerous interactions with these vehicles are.
Can I File a Workplace Wrongful Death Lawsuit if My Spouse was Killed at Work?
Certain careers place their employees at a particularly high risk of death or serious workplace injury. Loggers, roofers, steelworkers, and other similar hands-on employees who work with heavy objects and machinery, especially at great heights, are frequently injured on the job. When an employee is injured on the job in Illinois, workers’ compensation usually covers the injury or loss suffered by an employee or their family. People generally cannot sue their employers for negligence. But when a third party was involved, there may be a potential for a lawsuit.
Why is Workers’ Compensation Mandated?
While there are exceptions for employees who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, employers in Illinois usually must have workers’ compensation so that an employee who is injured or killed on the job can be fairly compensated, regardless of who was at fault. This benefits the employees by allowing them to collect benefits even if the employer was not directly at fault, including incidents where an employee:
My Illinois Supervisor is Sexually Harassing Me. Can I Do Anything?
Sexual harassment in a Chicago workplace is never excusable - and in 2022, nobody can say that they have not received training or adequate information about what constitutes sexual harassment. Yet this terrible behavior continues to happen all the time and the most common victims of sexual harassment are women, ethnic minorities, and other vulnerable populations.
In addition to being an unacceptable way to treat another human being, sexual harassment is illegal. If you are a victim of sexual harassment, you have options to stop the harassment and possibly even pursue a lawsuit against the perpetrator. You do not have to take action alone; consider speaking with an experienced Illinois sexual harassment attorney.
Is “Joking” an Excuse for Sexual Harassment?
While some people may want to engage in flirtatious innuendo at work, people often engage in sexual harassment and later fall back on the excuse that it was “just a joke.” Whether the perpetrator claims it is a joke or not, sexual harassment occurs when someone makes unwanted sexual advances, asks for sexual favors, or engages in other unwanted physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature. When someone rejects or submits to sexual harassment because of the fear that doing otherwise could lead to a negative employment outcome or hostile work environment, the sexual harassment is against the law.
Emerging Treatments for Breast Cancer Patients in Illinois
Breast cancer treatments are constantly evolving towards more effective methods with less significant side effects. Women in Illinois who are diagnosed today with breast cancer, especially those whose cancer is caught early, stand a much better chance of survival than cancer patients even in the more recent past.
But even the most effective treatment is dependent on correctly diagnosing cancer in a timely manner. Doctors, radiologists, and oncologists must take the responsibility to provide their patients with a standard of care seriously. When medical providers make mistakes, act negligently, or otherwise cause a misdiagnosis or inappropriate course of treatment for breast cancer, they may be held liable for the consequences. Here are some of the most promising emerging breast cancer treatments available today.
HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
For a long period of time, HER2 breast cancer was one of the most difficult types of breast cancer to treat. A new drug, trastuzumab, specifically targets HER2 receptors and has improved treatment outcomes significantly, especially when combined with chemotherapy. HER2-positive breast cancer is still challenging because not every patient receives the same benefit from trastuzumab and doctors must be particularly careful to assess a patient’s likelihood to need aggressive treatment methods.
Causes and Early Signs of Breast Cancer
Every day, thousands of women across the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. One of the most common and well-understood types of cancer, breast cancer is a type of cancer that forms in the cells of breast tissue of both men and women, although it is seen far more frequently in women.
If you have received a breast cancer diagnosis, you likely already know that a large team of medical staff is going to help you throughout your treatment and recovery. Each part of your Chicago cancer treatment team, whether doctors, nurses, oncologists, or radiologists, are responsible for providing treatment according to the established standard of care.
Unfortunately, this does not always happen successfully. Breast cancers are often misdiagnosed, mistreated, or missed altogether. To optimally treat breast cancer, it must be caught as early as possible and the patient given an effective testing and treatment regimen. Understanding how and when breast cancer diagnosis and treatment may involve medical malpractice is important for ensuring you get the best quality treatment available.
What Does My Ki-67 Level Say About My Breast Cancer Diagnosis?
When someone is diagnosed with breast cancer, there are a number of tests that can indicate what kind of cancer it is, how quickly it is likely to progress, and which treatment options may be more successful than others. This can be an overwhelming amount of information for breast cancer patients and patients must put their trust in the hands of a qualified medical team.
Unfortunately, doctors, nurses, radiologists, and other medical staff do not always exercise an adequate standard of care, and breast cancer patients can suffer when their cases are misdiagnosed or otherwise not managed appropriately. Lives are tragically cut short every day because of breast cancer malpractice, and doctors are responsible for doing everything in their power to keep this from happening.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with breast cancer, you are probably learning as much as you can. One important test you may want to know more about is the Ki-67 proliferation marker test. For a brief overview of this topic, and how it may contribute to an understanding of your breast cancer diagnosis, read on.
Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Offers Improved Breast Cancer Patient Outcomes in Illinois
Cases of breast cancer misdiagnosis are tragically common and the results can cause life-threatening injuries and death. Doctors are responsible for ensuring they pay close attention to their patients’ needs, complaints, and health histories so they can order the appropriate screening and diagnostic tests.
One of the best screening and diagnostic tools available is digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT).
When DBT is properly utilized in coordination with other tools, patient outcomes can improve dramatically. If you or a loved one have suffered from a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis because your doctor failed to order the appropriate detection tools or treatment, you may be able to pursue compensation.
What is Digital Breast Tomosynthesis?
DBT is a relatively new technology that improves a doctor’s ability to diagnose breast cancer. Also known as a 3D mammogram, DBT uses two-dimensional pictures to create a three-dimensional perspective of breast tissue. This method allows doctors to get a better view of overlapping tissue that is sometimes obstructed in other methods of breast imaging. This is especially helpful for women with dense breast tissue, which can often look similar to cancerous tissue on mammogram images.
How Can a Hormone Receptor Test Affect My Breast Cancer Diagnosis?
Whether due to suspicious results on a routine mammogram or a patient finding a lump in their breast, breast tissue biopsies may be warranted to determine whether breast cancer is present. After breast tissue is removed, it is sent to a laboratory and tested. If breast cancer is present, the breast cancer cells may be tested further to determine the specific type of cancer and potential treatment options.
Breast tissue is regularly tested for the presence of certain proteins that allow estrogen and progesterone to attach to special receptors in breast tissue cells, stimulating cancer growth.
If a breast tissue sample does have these estrogen and progesterone receptors, the cancer will be deemed hormone receptor-positive. Understanding what it means to have breast tissue that is hormone receptor-positive is important if you believe you may have suffered from a breast cancer misdiagnosis or negligent treatment from your Illinois healthcare provider.
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