Medical Malpractice

Bradley M. Cosgrove, partner at Clifford Law Offices, obtained a $3 million verdict on behalf of a 52-year-old man who died from a pulmonary embolism 50 days after undergoing leg surgery at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. The case involved Edward A. Smolinski of Elmhurst who died when doctors failed to prevent, diagnose and treat a pulmonary embolus following surgery to repair a quadriceps tendon in his left leg. The case was brought by his wife Margaret…

An alarming statistic released on January 15th 2017 stated that about two percent of all doctors are involved in half of all medical malpractice settlements, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) that has studied this issue for the past 25 years. The NPDB reported that these settlements represented a total of more than $41 billion. At the same time, however, it was reported that only a small percentage of those reporting to this…

Bob Clifford resumed writing a column for the newly redesigned Chicago Lawyer publication that has a subscription base of thousands of lawyers. In Clifford’s latest column he goes into depth about medical errors and how the CDC does not allow physicians, medical examiners, coroners and funeral directors to list medical error as a cause of death. Martin Makary, an American surgeon, has asked the CDC to list medical errors as the third most common cause…

A Cook County Circuit Court jury returned a verdict for $3.3 million against Northwestern Hospital for administering a 56-year-old man 10 times the ordered dosage of an anti-viral drug that led to his kidney failure and death. Keith A. Hebeisen and Sarah F. King, lawyers at Clifford Law Offices, obtained the verdict against the major hospital in a Chicago courtroom following a one-week trial. The six-man-six-woman jury deliberated less than two hours before returning the…

On June 1st, 2016, Keith A. Hebeisen and Bradley M. Cosgrove, partners at Clifford Law Offices, obtained a $7.75 million verdict in Cook County Circuit Court against a doctor whose patient died of cardiac complications hours after spinal surgery. Susan A. Capra, nurse and partner at the firm, worked up the case for the two-week trial before Judge Donald Suriano. The eight-woman four-man jury deliberated for approximately an hour before reaching the $7.75 million verdict…

The latest study on deaths in America indicates that the third leading cause is medical errors. A professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is asking the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to correct its records and list medical errors as the third most common cause of death in the United States with 251,454, following heart disease (614,348) and cancer (591,699). Dr. Martin Makary, a cancer surgeon and professor of health policy…

Shannon McNulty and Bradley Cosgrove, partners at Clifford Law Offices, obtained a $6.5 million settlement on behalf of a 35-year-old man who died after negligent care at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. A jury was selected before Judge Thomas V. Lyons of the Cook County Circuit Court and opening statements were set to begin when the parties reached a settlement late Friday afternoon. An order was entered Monday, April 4, 2016 dismissing the case…

Bradley M. Cosgrove, partner at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, this afternoon (Nov. 4, 2015) obtained an $8.25 million verdict against a Chicago hospital on behalf of a family who lost their father and husband due to negligence following a total knee replacement surgery. Adam Szwarek, Sr., was a patient at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago from December 8 – 10 of 2009. Following the surgery, he suffered a heart…

Medical malpractice lawyer, Susan Capra, was interviewed by Clifford Law Offices in regards to malpractice cases. She explained the two common types of malpractice saying, “During surgery, [if] a surgeon cuts a wrong blood vessel or cuts on the wrong site – that’s an affirmative act. An example of an omission would be a failure to diagnose the condition.” Omission could also mean the doctor failed to pick up the red flags. She explained that…