Illinois Parents and Children Can Be Protected From Medical Malpractice
An infant recently died from an Illinois hospital's medication error. The baby's wrongful death demonstrates the need for hospitals to follow all safety precautions when providing neonatal care.
CHICAGO, IL, May 21, 2012
Families who lose children are left devastated by their loss. While nothing can be done to bring back their loved one, families can investigate what happened, and if the death resulted from negligent medical care, a medical malpractice case can be brought.A Chicago couple who'd faced difficulty conceiving was finally welcoming a tiny baby boy into its family. Although the baby was born 15 weeks premature, he had responded well to intensive care treatment at the local hospital. Sadly, their hope turned to sorrow when their child died six weeks after birth, the victim of a massive overdose of sodium mistakenly administered by hospital staff.
The parents recently reached an agreement with the hospital for the wrongful death of their child, accepting $8.25 million, the largest settlement ever in a case of this kind in Illinois. The large sum the hospital administrators agreed to represents the utter devastation and grief its negligence has caused a family. The parents hope that no other family will have to go through what they did, as no amount of money can bring back their son.
While medical malpractice cases may be unpleasant for the health care providers who are involved in them, the fact is they are often life-saving measures that save others from similar tragedies in the future.
In the Chicago case, the hospital issued a statement indicating that it had taken steps to improve procedures to prevent future dosage errors. In this baby's case, a pharmacy technician made a mistake typing directions into a computer program for mixing and dispensing IV fluids. As a result, the amount of sodium in the solution prepared for the baby was 60 times the amount the doctor had prescribed.
When the infant began showing signs of an overdose, a physician ordered a blood test. The test showed an elevated level of sodium after the baby began receiving the deadly fluids, but, sadly, the doctor believed the blood test was incorrect and failed to have another test performed in time to save the baby.
According to the couple's lawyer, the hospital's new safeguards to catch errors and protect patients will include having a pharmacist check and recheck every IV bag prepared in the pharmacy, to be doubly certain the label is accurate before the solution is administered. Also, doctors will take anomalies in blood tests seriously and must have another test done promptly if they think the results of the first test could be inaccurate.
The ability of modern medicine to save the lives of tiny, premature babies is miraculous, but when health care facilities themselves cause the death of one of these children, they need to be held accountable. This latest settlement should motivate medical professionals to take the right precautions and to never disregard an unexpected test result.
If your baby has been seriously harmed by negligence, contact an experienced Chicago medical malpractice attorney to discuss your options for obtaining money damages and ensuring that a similar error isn't made again.
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