April 11, 2010

Gurnee family awarded nearly $30 million in Illinois birth injury lawsuit

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a Gurnee family was recently awarded $30 million after a judge ruled in favor of the Illinois family’s claims that medical negligence during a childbirth caused the child to be a quadriplegic. The Illinois birth injury lawsuit alleged that medical negligence was committed by federally employed physicians who were at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago when their son was born in 2003.

The Illinois family’s lawyers stated that an infection started before the mother went into labor, but she was not given necessary antibiotics. Then, during the first few hours of life, the child showed “red flags” related to having an infection, but the infection went untreated. The infection unfortunately traveled into the child’s bloodstream and eventually into his brain. The result of the Illinois medical negligence during the childbirth was permanent brain damage. The Chicago birth injury lawsuit alleged that had the doctors followed the standard of care, the child would have been born a normal baby boy instead of a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.

The attorneys at Levin & Perconti are unfortunately all too familiar with Illinois birth injury lawsuits. Birth injuries are a category of medical malpractice claims and lawsuits that arise when babies are injured at birth or before birth by careless or intentional acts of a healthcare provider. The birth injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti have extensive experience with birth injury lawsuits and injury lawsuits under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Like in the Gurnee family’s case, many of the places we go and spaces we inhabit each day are owned by the federal government and operated by its employees. Victims like the Gurnee family have the right to seek restitution from the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act.


More information is available on the birth injury verdict here.

October 20, 2007

Bridge Collapse Victims may not be fully compensated for injuries

After the horrific Interstate 35W bridge collapse this summer, families affected by the tragedy are learning the compensation allocated to victims may not be enough. Take, for example, Paula Coulter, whose family was injured as their care tumbled onto the bridge collapse. Paula’s days consist of physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and recreational therapy due to brain damage sustained during the bridge collapse. For this family, with medical bills already toppling $380,000, the $300,000 cap allocated to each individual involved in the crash will not be enough.

June 5, 2007

Personal Injury Lawyer infected with rare strain of tuberculosis

A personal injury lawyer was allowed back into the U.S by a customs agent despite being red flagged by the Department of Homeland Security. The lawyer contracted the rare disease while traveling abroad for his wedding and honeymoon. This particular strain of tuberculosis is extremely resistant to standard antibiotics and requires immediate treatment. Knowing that his life was in jeopardy, the lawyer cut his honeymoon short and immediately took a flight to Canada. He then rented a car and crossed the border into the U.S. A customs agent allowed him to cross despite being notified by his computer that this person should be detained. Fellow flight passengers are currently being tested for the infectious disease. If tests results come back positive, a lawsuit may be brought against the government for allowing this infectious person to fly. The lawyer is being held at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado for treatment.

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