There’s an unavoidable trepidation that people have when seeking treatment for a medical issue in Cook County or anywhere else. This might not be due to the expectation that there will be a medical mistake, but the risk of one is a constantly hovering possibility. Even those who are prepared for it on some level might not think it will even happen to them. Unfortunately, it can and does. If there is a surgical error, it can result in serious injuries and even a medical malpractice death. The important thing to do after the unexpected loss of a loved one is to make sure to have legal protection.
A woman in Cook County whose husband died after a procedure to remove a goiter in March of 2012 is moving forward with a wrongful death lawsuit. According to the special administrator of the woman’s estate, the case was filed in mid-December against a medical center in Oak Park. The complaint alleges that she was told her husband had a heart attack after the operation and was hospitalized until he died eight days later. However, in December of 2013, the woman received her husband’s medical records and found that his cause of death was actually due to airway obstruction after the surgery, not a heart attack. She seeks damages of greater than $50,000.
Because healthcare is reliant on making accurate diagnoses and giving the appropriate treatment, there are numerous mistakes that can be made by a great many people along the way. There could be a delayed diagnosis, a mistaken diagnosis, an error during or after surgery, failing to get the proper consent and more. Medical care facilities will try to avoid admitting wrongdoing knowing that it can result in legal liability. This is why it is imperative that those who believe that a mistake led to injury or death of a loved one need to have an investigation based on their own interests to determine what happened and why.
Losing a patient because of a medical mistake is egregious and those who are confronted with this reality need to have help to pursue a legal case from an experienced attorney.
Source: Cook County Record, “Wife alleges Oak Park hospital’s surgical error cost her husband his life,” Robert Hadley, Dec. 17, 2015
