$4.52 Million Verdict - Misdiagnosed Breast Cancer

Upper gastrointestinal histopathological slides for a 38-year-old woman were misinterpreted at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, resulting in the plaintiff’s stomach cancer not being properly diagnosed until 16 months later. The original slides showed Stage I adenocarcinoma (stomach cancer), and when the slides were properly diagnosed, the plaintiff was at stage III. As a result, the plaintiff was at a 56% chance of recurrence, although at trial, the plaintiff still had not had a recurrence.

$2.9 Million Verdict – Birth Injury

Attorneys Daniel E. O’Brien and Timothy M. Richardson - A Cook County jury awarded parents a $2.9 million verdict following the intrauterine death of their baby girl. The defendant nurses failed to alert a doctor even though the mother showed signs and symptoms of a uterine rupture while in the hospital. The mother’s condition progressively worsened for eight hours, but the nurses did not take action and did not check the mother’s vital signs for three of those hours. When the nurses finally alerted a doctor, the doctor initiated an emergency C-section within five minutes but found the mother’s uterus had ruptured, and the baby girl had passed away.

$3.25 Million Settlement - Nursing Home Neglect

Cook County - Attorneys Timothy Richardson and Paul Salzetta - A disabled 57-year-old woman was recovering at a nursing facility in a northern Chicago suburb following knee surgery. On 9/24/12, she fell out of bed and suffered wound dehiscence and a patellar tendon rupture which required three repair surgeries. She developed an infection and eventually needed an above the knee amputation. The defendant argued that the plaintiff did not follow orders to stay in bed and that the plaintiff’s underlying condition would have necessitated supervisory life care planning even if the injury had not occurred. The settlement was paid by a confidential nursing home.

$11 Million Settlement - Birth Injury

Cook County - November 2003

Attorneys Timothy Richardson and Paul Salzetta - In November of 2003, a 38-week-old baby girl was born at Chicago area hospital with neonatal depression (Apgars of 3 and 5). No arterial cord gas was obtained. The plaintiff alleged the labor and delivery team negligently monitored the fetal heart tracings, failed to properly interpret the fetal heart tracings, and improperly continued with the administration of Pitocin in the presence of non-reassuring tracings and uterine hyperstimulation.