Lawsuit Brought Against Cancer Clinic that Used Dirty Syringes and Watered-Down Chemotherapy Drugs
Our Chicago personal injury attorneys know that, devastatingly, incidents of medical malpractice are all too common.
A cancer clinic doctor and a number of employees have been charged in a federal investigation that has now given way to a wrongful death lawsuit.
According to a recent report by the Associated Press, the doctor and staff of the Rose Cancer Center are facing federal criminal charges for allegedly using old syringes and watered-down chemotherapy drugs; the doctor has been held without bond since her arrest in August because she is seen as a flight risk. The charges against her are for diluting drugs and billing Medicaid and Medicare for more chemotherapy than patients actually were given. Said the Associated Press, federal and state authorities have said old needles were used on multiple patients.
The Rose Cancer Center was closed earlier this year because of “unsafe infection control practices,” and now the cancer clinic’s doctor is now facing a civil lawsuit that claims a patient contracted HIV from a dirty needle.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the patient’s son, alleges that the victim went to the clinic for treatment of his brain and lung cancer. Instead he was given watered-down drugs and was infected with HIV by a dirty needle; the HIV weakened the man’s immune system, and the lack of proper medication hastened his death by not treating his cancer. He died earlier this year at the age of 61, prior to the State Health Department shutting down the clinic.
The Associated Press reports that the Rose Cancer Clinic was established in 2005, and until it was shut down, billed Medicaid and Medicare for about $15.1 million during the alleged scheme; Prosecutors say that patients were given less chemotherapy or cheaper drugs than they were told, while the clinic billed Medicaid and Medicare for more. Additionally, the clinic billed for new syringes for each patient even though it reused needles on multiple people. In fact, court records include a chart showing the discrepancy between the amount of drugs that the clinic actually purchased from pharmaceutical companies, and the amount of drugs billed to Medicare and Medicaid. In one case, the clinic billed Medicare and Medicaid for 142,200 milligrams of a cancer-treating drug, despite the fact that records show it had only purchased 45,100 milligrams of that drug.
Any Chicago personal injury attorney knows that Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits arise when doctors, nurses, hospitals, or other healthcare providers commit negligent or abusive acts toward their patients, and the patients are harmed as a result.
If you or a loved one have been harmed as a result of a healthcare professional’s actions, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Compensation in Illinois personal injury lawsuits generally comes in two forms:
• Compensatory damages, which attempt to put a person back in the position he or she was in before the injury. This may include payment of medical and hospital bills incurred because of the injury, wages lost, or compensation for loss of a normal life, among many other forms.
• Punitive damages, which are intended to punish the wrongdoer for his or her actions. Additionally, punitive damages serve to send a message to others in similar positions to the defendant party, urging them not to act in the same harmful way.
An attorney will be able to advise you of your rights under the law.
