Settlement: $2.500,000.00 A forty eight year old woman presents to the emergency room with signs and symptoms of a disorder she was known to have called TTP.  Her family doctor had actually called the hospital ahead of time to inform the staff there that this patient was coming in and that she needed a specific type of treatment call plasma pharesis. The hospital delayed the process of ordering and ultimately executing the order for the treatment the plaintiff needed and she died some eight hours after getting to the hospital.  This settlement represents only a partial settlement effectuated against only one defendant of a total of eight.  The rest of the case remains pending.

Settlement: $425,000.00 A 21 year old gunshot victim suffered multiple burst fractures in his thoracic spine causing instant paraplegia.  He was admitted to the hospital and within thirty days developed a Stage IV bedsore.  The plaintiff in this case took the better part of a year to heal but made a full recovery.  The defense argued that given the plaintiff’s condition he could not be moved and therefore the bedsore was not preventable.  The defense also argued that given the plaintiff’s spinal cord injury he could not feel pain, limiting the case’s value.  This matter was settled for $425,000.00 in just under six months from the day the day the case was signed up.

Settlement: $250,000.00 A 74 year old man with congestive heart failure was admitted to the hospital with severe pneumonia, dangerously high blood pressure, uncontrolled diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and a bevy of other co-morbidities.  While there he developed a bedsore in his sacral region.  He died at another facility thirty days after discharge.  The defense argued that the patient’s death was not occasioned by the bedsore and that irrespective of the development of the pressure sore the decedent had a life expectancy of less than a year.  This case was settled in less than five months from the time the clients signed with the Kosner Firm, Chtd.

Settlement: $9.8 million. A 28-year-old woman died while in labor in the delivery room at Cook County Hospital. The doctors and staff failed to recognize signs that their patient was bleeding internally, resulting in massive blood loss and ultimately death. This settlement was one of the largest medical-malpractice wrongful-death settlements in Illinois during 2008 and one of the largest such cases ever settled with Cook County Hospital.

Settlement: $1.65 million. A woman’s baby was delivered stillborn. Physicians and nurses attending her labor failed to recognize that her placenta had ruptured and did not take timely steps to deliver the child. This settlement was the second highest reported Stillbirth settlement without a trial in Illinois history at the time and remains one of the largest stillborn settlements in the state’s history. The case was settled less than 90 days after the child died.

Settlement: $960,000. A man in his late 60s was killed while crossing a busy Boston, Mass., street against the light and while talking on his cell phone. A semi-truck ran him over and dragged his body down the street. The driver of the semi claimed he never saw the man before striking him. The settlement represents a recovery of $960,000 from available insurance coverage totaling only $1,000,000.

Settlement $900,000. A woman drove her car into a semi-tractor trailer that was straddled across a two-lane highway. The plaintiff said the trailer was parked on the side of the road when it suddenly jackknifed and began backing across her lane of travel making it impossible for her to stop. The driver of the truck claimed he had been backing into the driveway of the trucking company that owned the vehicle for at least 30 seconds before she hit it and that she had plenty of time to stop. The plaintiff sustained a closed head injury and a broken foot. The settlement represents $900,000.00 of a $1,000,000 insurance policy.

Settlement: $650,000. A 58-year-old woman suffered a stage IV bedsore after an extended stay at a hospital for a broken leg. She died from unrelated causes six months after her discharge.

Settlement: $460,000. A 75-year-old man developed a stage IV bedsore after a prolonged stay at a hospital. The wound healed completely within nine months and the plaintiff made a full recovery.