Illinois “Never Event” & Medical Malpractice Lawyers

A hospital error that should never have happened can upend your life in an instant, whether it’s a surgery on the wrong site, a retained instrument or a preventable safety failure. Here at Kent M. Lucaccioni, Ltd., we are experienced Illinois medical malpractice attorneys who know how to spot these never events and hold hospitals accountable under state law. We are proud to serve clients across Cook, Kane and DuPage Counties, with offices in Chicago and Elgin, and we offer free initial consultations in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

What Are Never Events In Medical Malpractice?

In terms of medical malpractice, a never event is something that should not happen under any circumstances. It is far more than a negative outcome or basic mistake. Medical professionals, through negligence or omission, have done something that harmed the patient that never should have occurred.

Illinois Legal Standards For Never Event Claims

Before filing a never event lawsuit in Illinois, the law requires a specific paperwork hurdle: a written affidavit from a qualified physician, filed under Section 2-622 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, stating that someone in the medical field has actually looked at the case and believes it holds up. Skip this step, and a court can throw the case out before either side ever argues the merits.

Timing matters just as much. Illinois generally requires a claim within two years of discovering, or reasonably being expected to discover, the injury, per 735 ILCS 5/13-212. There’s also a hard outer boundary: four years from whatever act or omission actually caused the harm, no matter when that harm came to light. Minors typically get more time, though that extended clock eventually runs out too.

One place Illinois breaks from many other states: there’s no dollar ceiling on non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, in a never event claim. The state’s highest court threw out a prior cap on those damages as unconstitutional in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, which means a jury remains free to award whatever it decides truly reflects what a serious never event injury took from you.

Why Choose Kent M. Lucaccioni, Ltd. For Your Never Event Case

Kent M. Lucaccioni, Ltd. brings deep experience in Illinois medical malpractice law to some of the most serious cases a hospital can cause. We know how these claims are built, what evidence they require and how to work within Illinois’s strict filing rules so a technicality never costs you your case. With offices in downtown Chicago, Uptown Chicago and Elgin, we serve clients across Cook, Kane and DuPage Counties.

Serving Cook And Kane County Patients

Our Chicago offices put us close to Cook County Circuit Court at the Daley Center, and we regularly handle cases involving major systems like Northwestern Memorial, Rush University Medical Center, UChicago Medicine and Stroger Hospital. Our Elgin office serves the Kane County Judicial Center and the Fox Valley area, including cases tied to Advocate Sherman Hospital, Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital and AMITA Health St. Joseph Hospital.

What Is An Example Of A Never Event

Wrong-site surgery is a never event. It generally happens in one of three ways: operating on the wrong side of the body, operating on the wrong patient or performing the wrong procedure entirely. These mistakes often trace back to miscommunication or a skipped safety protocol, such as a surgeon failing to mark the correct site before the procedure begins.

Other examples include injections into the wrong site, foreign objects retained after surgery, certain medication errors, discharging an infant to the wrong parents and using the wrong prosthetic or implant.

Categories Of Never Events

The National Quality Forum identifies 29 never events, grouped into a few broad categories.

• Surgical And Procedural Events: This category includes retained foreign objects like sponges or instruments left inside a patient, as well as wrong-site, wrong-patient or wrong-procedure surgeries.
• Patient Protection Events: These involve failures to protect a vulnerable patient, such as an unsafe discharge, a patient elopement that leads to harm or a suicide that occurs within a healthcare facility.
• Care Management Events: This category covers serious lapses in ongoing care, including stage 3 or stage 4 hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, severe medication administration errors and ABO-incompatible blood transfusions.
• Environmental And Radiological Events: These events stem from a hospital’s physical environment or equipment, such as contaminated oxygen lines, MRI projectile injuries or electrical shock.

A never event can have catastrophic and life-altering consequences, including disfigurement, disability and long-term financial strain for a patient who cannot return to work. That is why it is so important to understand your legal options and how to pursue compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and lost or reduced earning capacity.

Call For A Free Consultation

If you believe you or a loved one has suffered a never event or another example of medical malpractice in Illinois, call our team at 877-930-2551 or use the online contact form to set up your free initial consultation today.