November 22, 2013
Clifford Law Offices obtained a $15.55 million verdict today (Friday, Nov. 22, 2013) in a wrongful death lawsuit against the University of Chicago Hospital and two doctors.
Keith A. Hebeisen, partner at the firm, received the verdict in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the husband of a woman who died at childbirth after the defendants failed to diagnose and properly treat Karen Lopez of Westchester for a high-risk complication. Lopez, 33, died during a cesarean section delivery from excessive bleeding. The child is alive and well. She left behind her husband, Carlos, and another son who was two years old at the time.
“Women who suffer from the medical condition called placenta accreta usually will not die if it is detected and managed properly,” Hebeisen said. “These doctors were negligent in not following through on information they had. They completely ignored the clear signs that this young mother was in grave trouble and the jury saw that.”
The verdict was against Dr. Mahmoud A. Ismail, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist of the University of Chicago Hospital, and Dr. Mukundini Mehta, an obstetrician-gynecologist at MacNeal Hospital. Dr. Mehta had also delivered Karen’s first son. Karen was a tenured teacher at Morton East High School at the time of her death in February, 2008.
The four-man-eight-woman jury deliberated for less than six hours before reaching the third highest verdict for wrongful death in a medical malpractice case in Cook County history, according to the Jury Verdict Reporter. Judge James P. Flannery presided over the two-week trial at the Daley Center.
Sarah F. King, associate at Clifford Law Offices, assisted with the case. Earlier this week, Clifford Law Offices’ medical malpractice team obtained an $885,000 verdict in Cook County Circuit Court against Dr. Victory Forys and Forys-Birn & Associates, P.C. d/b/a Centra Medical Clinic on Chicago’s far northwest side. Partner Bradley Cosgrove obtained that verdict on behalf of a 69-year-old man.
For further information, please contact Clifford Law Offices’ Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 or 847-251-4877 or 312-899-9090.
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