Medical Malpractice

Hydrocephalus is a medical condition that can develop at any age, including during infancy. The term “hydrocephalus” literally translates to “water in the brain.” Hydrocephalus occurs when there is a build-up of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) in the brain. CSF is a clear, colorless fluid that is produced in an area of the brain called the choroid plexus within the lateral ventricles. The ventricles are fluid-filled spaces in the brain. There are two lateral ventricles,…

There are thousands of prescription medications available on the market today along with countless health supplements sold over the counter. The sheer amount of options consumers have in 2020 when it comes to treating their medical conditions means that unfortunately, mistakes are sometimes made in the prescribing and managing of these medications. Prescription drug errors vary in type and severity, but many times they are the result of negligence on the part of a medical…

A team of medical malpractice lawyers at Clifford Law Offices obtained a record $101 million verdict on behalf of a baby who sustained brain damage at birth at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Illinois. Following a month-long trial, Keith A. Hebeisen, Bradley M. Cosgrove, Sarah F. King and Charles R. Haskins obtained the record verdict on behalf of now five-year-old Gerald Sallis who was brain damaged at birth when his external fetal monitoring…

Keith A. Hebeisen and Sarah F. King, attorneys at Clifford Law Offices, obtained a $7.4 million settlement on behalf of a young man paralyzed from the waist down following the neurosurgeon’s decision to deviate from an established spinal cyst drainage procedure without the patient’s consent. Kelvin Kakazu, 38, awoke from surgery on July 20, 2013 without feeling in his feet or legs. Video produced during discovery revealed that the neurosurgeon had cauterized and cut a…

Keith A. Hebeisen and Sarah F. King, attorneys at Clifford Law Offices, obtained an $8.5 million settlement on behalf of a mother who died after childbirth at Stroger Hospital following the medical team’s failure to recognize and treat signs and symptoms of ongoing bleeding from a placental abruption. Leticia Lara, 38, died Nov. 28, 2013, following the delivery of her child. On the day of delivery, she had an increased heart rate and decreased blood…

A study by the Leapfrog Group – a nonprofit watchdog organization that assesses patient safety at acute care hospitals throughout the US – released their biannual report for Spring 2019. Illinois dropped to No. 14, one spot below last year’s report. Of the 42 Illinois hospitals assessed for patient safety, a few of them dropped to a B, thus pulling the ranking of the state down one spot. View the grades for all Illinois hospitals…

Susan Capra, a partner at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, answers common medical malpractice questions. Susan is also a registered nurse and has combined her medical knowledge with her legal education to help those who have been injured by healthcare professionals. She understands all that it takes to put together a successful medical malpractice case because these matters are highly complex. What is medical malpractice? Susan: Medical malpractice is a cause of action for damages…

USA Today reported on how “Hospitals know how to protect mothers. They just aren’t doing it” in a weekend story entitled “Deadly Deliveries.” In a cover story of July 27-29, 2018, reporter Alison Young and a team of contributors wrote of how they examined more than half-million pages of internal hospital quality records obtained through federally funded programs and the deliveries of 150 women at hospitals where “deliveries went terribly wrong.” Their findings resulted in…

The birth of a child certainly is one of the most significant events for a family, but all of those hopes are ruined for hundreds of people following two fertility clinics destroying frozen embryos when the liquid nitrogen tanks thawed in March. Imagine women with uterine cancer who counted on those stored embryos to be their only hope for a family. Or those aging women who paid medical professionals assuring them that they would be…