Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

A number of public service ads, although containing a very important message, have been criticized for the disturbing, frightening images they use; nevertheless, the advertisements warning against the dangers of sleeping next to babies may have the potential to save the lives of infants from accidental death.

As per a report by MSNBC discussing the ads, legal analyst Star Jones pointed out that over-the-top images tend to stick in people's brains better than more subtle messages. The public notice adverts show an image of an infant cuddled up next to a butcher’s knife, with the message that, if you wouldn’t do that, you ought not to be co-sleeping with your baby either. The caption reads: "Your baby sleeping with you can be just as dangerous."

Although allowing a baby to sleep in an adult bed with a parent may seem like a nurturing and loving undertaking, our Illinois personal injury attorneys understand that it may pose a very serious, deadly risk to the child.

According to the American Academy of Family physicians, possible dangers of co-sleeping with an infant include these possible risks:
• Suffocation of the baby from a parent rolling onto or next to the baby.
• Suffocation of the baby from being trapped between a mattress and a headboard, or mattress and the wall.
• Suffocation of the baby from sleeping face-down on the mattress, pillow or blanket.
• Strangulation of the baby from the infant's head being trapped in part of the headboard.

Nevertheless, these ads have raised questions of whether the way in which they present their message is ‘over the top.’ On the other hand, advertising executive Donny Deutsch disagreed: "If it saves one baby..." it’s worth it.

Another essential lesson to take away from the publicity of the issues of dangerous sleeping conditions is the idea that no matter where the baby sleeps, hazards may be present. When babies sleep in bed with adults, they may be surrounded by fluffy bedding and have obstacles against which they may roll near and suffocate; however, the same dangers may also be present in cribs that use bumper pads.

Crib bumper pads, which wrap around the inside of a crib and tie to crib slats, were originally designed to protect the child from bumping his or her head against the hard bars of the crib. However, at such a young age, babies often have not yet developed the necessary motor skills to move their heads or turn away if they roll against something that obstructs their breathing.

Continue reading "Frightening Ads Remind Us to Keep Baby's Sleeping Conditions Safe" »

Our Chicago personal injury lawyers were so sad to read about the three year-old Illinois boy who is now hospitalized after being pulled from a swimming pool late last week. The Illinois pool accident happened near Collinsville, Illinois in the 1200 block of South Clinton Road in St. Clair County, Illinois. Illinois fire personnel indicated that the drowning victim was unconscious and unresponsive. No further information was available about the boy’s health and condition at the time.

Continue reading "Boy hospitalized after being pulled from swimming pool" »

According to the Chicago Tribune, City Council will consider an ordinance today that would ban the sale of bumper pads for children’s cribs. This comes after an investigation by the paper found a number of children died after suffocating on bumper pads. Our Chicago personal injury lawyers support this ban and hope that it will help prevent future deaths among infants and small children.

According to a Washington University School of Medicine study that appeared in The Journal of Pediatrics, the risk of injury or death from using crib bumper pads is greater than the benefits. These pads were originally designed to prevent children from falling out of cribs or getting their heads caught between slats, however subsequent regulations required manufacturers to design cribs so that the spaces were small enough to prevent children from falling out. Despite these changes, many people continued to use bumpers even though they were no longer needed.

Accidental injuries to children and death can occur from suffocation, strangulation or when a child becomes wedged in between the pad and side of the crib or mattress. Since young babies cannot roll-over or release themselves from these constraints, they are likely to suffocate.

Last December, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan warned parents of the dangers of crib bumpers and recommended that families stop using them to reduce the risk of accidental suffocation or strangulation. We hope that if passed, the Chicago ordinance will help to raise public awareness further surrounding the dangers associated with bumper pad use. We also hope that other cities will follow suit and introduce similar bans.

In the meantime, our personal injury attorneys recommend that parents, grandparents, and all infant caregivers take steps to prevent these accidents from happening in the first place. We suggest that if you are currently using bumper pads, you should remove them from your child’s bed immediately. Since they serve no purpose and offer no protection to babies in cribs designed after the seventies, it is best to remove them to help reduce your child’s risk for suffocation, strangulation, or other serious personal injuries.

Our Chicago injury lawyers read about several Illinois children who were transported to area hospitals after sustaining personal injuries when an inflatable slide tipped over on a junior elementary school playground. Fortunately, none of the fifth-graders’ personal injuries were life-threatening. However, the school reported that one child sustained a head injury in the playground accident when their head hit the asphalt. That same child reported dizziness. Some students also had bloody lips. The students were on an inflatable slide that appeared to tip over, causing the children to fall onto the asphalt. The slide was roughly fifteen feet high and there were fifty students outside at the time.

While many head injuries are harmless, they have to be taken very seriously because of risk of brain injury. Often times, parents wonder if their child needs medical attention after a head injury. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents contact their child’s healthcare provider for advance for anything more than a light bump on the head. Additionally, children with the following symptoms should be evaluated by a healthcare provider: recurrent vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, headaches, behavioral changes, clumsiness, confusion, dizziness that does not resolve, or if the child fell from a height greater than five feet. These symptoms may indicate head injury complication.

Continue reading "Several Illinois children injured after slide tips" »

Federal regulators recently announced a product recall that may hit close to Illinois homes this Memorial Day weekend. Many pools across the country will need to replace faulty safety equipment that can lead to swimmers getting trapped underwater and drowning. The product recall of pool drains involves 1 million covers. The timing of the product recall by the United States Product Safety Commission (CSPC) made many pool owners and operators frustrated. Our Illinois product liability lawyers hope that such action will prevent injuries or deaths. Pool owners and operators have, in the recent years, installed safety equipment; unfortunately, this has failed to make these drains safe. Hiring a pool professional to replace drains can cost hundreds of dollars, which frustrates the homeowners and operators. The CPSC noted that larger pools with multiple drains or gravity draining systems will not need to close, but those with a single main drain will need to close if their drain is one of those recalled.

The danger of pool drains, which may seem harmless, occurs when the drains do not have proper covers. Then, the drains can act like supercharged vacuum cleaners, which are capable of trapping people under water with hundreds of pounds of suction force. Earlier this year, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed how pool drain covers failed safety tests. The investigation revealed a confidential report where witnesses to tests concluded that some pool drain covers certified that the drains could result in “serious injuries and/or death.” The CPSC had also fielded safety complaints about the drain covers for more than two years, but did not launch any investigation until last year.

Continue reading "Chicago Injury Lawyer Alert: Pools may be affected by product recall of drain covers" »

Our Chicago product liability lawyers frequently visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission website to review recent product recalls. Many consumers are unaware of product recalls, which leaves many people vulnerable to personal injuries due to dangerous products that may be in their homes. Two recent product recalls, bunk beds and light bulbs, are especially important. The bunk beds can result in injuries to children and the light bulbs are likely in a lot of homes!

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm that manufactured the bunk beds, Dorel Asia SRL has issued a product recall for bunk beds. The product recall states that consumers should stop using the recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. The products are wooden bunk beds and about 445,000 units exist in the United States. The wooden side rails that run from the headboard to the footboard and hold the bunk bed’s mattress in place may split and cause the bunk bed to collapse, which poses a fall hazard to consumers. The manufacturer and CPSC has received over twenty reports of the side rails cracking or breaking, resulting in at least seven cases where the user had minor bruises or abrasions.

Continue reading "Bunk beds recalled due to danger of collapse; light bulbs due to fire hazard" »

A middle-aged man faces DUI charges after his vehicle hit a motorcycle, injuring a grandfather and his 6 year-old granddaughter. The car accident resulted in personal injuries to the two individuals and the driver was arrested and charged with aggravated driving under the influence. Local police stated that the man was crossing a center line where the car crash occurred and neighbors describe that the area is tricky with “blind curves.” Blind intersections are not uncommon in the Chicagoland area – often times, buildings, trees, walls, or other features may prevent us from seeing cars entering the intersection. Sometimes even traffic can “screen” out oncoming traffic, creating a large curved wall you cannot see beyond.

In this motorcycle accident, the grandfather was taken to the hospital with leg injuries and chest pains; his six year-old granddaughter was transported to a Children’s Hospital with a serious leg injury. The driver charged with the DUI called 911 himself and was remorseful about the car crash. Motorcycle accidents are always especially worrisome because passengers on motorcycles are so vulnerable, not protected by any sheets of metal forming car walls. As our Chicago car accident lawyers recently reported, studies showing decreases in motorcycle deaths may be misleading. Wrongful deaths due to motorcycle accidents dropped two percent, but that may only signal a blip in the safety trend and not a lasting improvement in motorcycle safety. Fatalities started to climb during the last three of the nine months reviewed, which has safety advocates worried.

In 2009, there were 130 motorcycle fatalities in Illinois, which is far too many. Start Seeing Motorcycles.org offers several resources, information, and training needed to make motorcycling experiences safer, more pleasurable, and help reduce fatalities and personal injuries. Next month, May 2011, has been proclaimed Motorcycle Awareness Month in the State of Illinois to keep Illinois roadways safe through proper motorist awareness.

Visit My Fox to read more about the injured child.
To read more about Illinois motorcycle safety, visit Startseeingmotorcycles.org.

Some of the saddest cases that a Chicago personal injury lawyer advances are those involving the death of a young child. Last week we reported on the death of an area boy following an amusement park ride mishap. A few days ago another tragic case made headlines when two siblings were killed in a train ride around an area park.

Besides accidents involved mechanical rides, at times youngsters are injured in sports accidents. Equipment failures are a common cause of those injuries. Football helmets can be incorrectly manufactured or heavy soccer goals can be poorly anchored to the ground. In fact, the latter issue was the subject of a new Illinois law that seeks to improve the safety of local soccer players.

NBC News reported that on Friday the Illinois House unanimously approved a bill colloquially known as “Zack’s Law.” The measure was spurred in large part by the tragic death of a six-year old suburban boy. The child was killed when an unstable, heavy metal goal toppled onto him. If it becomes law, the legislation would require that all parks use “tip resistant” soccer goals. In addition, all formal soccer leagues—like those run by park districts and soccer clubs—would be required to have a set of safety policies in place to properly anchor these pieces of equipment.

There have been at least 10 deaths caused by these errant goal posts. Advocates for the measure explain that “this is a situation where, absent the legislation, these goals are going to continue to be bought and sold in the state of Illinois, and then they’re put out there, and they’re ticking time bombs.”

Continue reading "New Illinois Child Injury Prevention Law Passes Illinois House" »

Our Chicago injury lawyers were saddened to read this tragic story of an infant’s wrongful death after a medical malpractice error at a Park Ridge, Illinois hospital. In response to the malpractice, a Chicago wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the child's parents against a Chicago-area hospital for the death of their 6-week-old infant. The Chicago medical malpractice lawsuit reports that the hospital’s staff negligently gave the small infant an intravenous (“IV”) bag with approximately sixty times the dose of sodium that was ordered by the physician. The infant passed away only slightly over one month after he was born prematurely. The Cook County wrongful death lawsuit reports that the child was making good progress at the hospital until a pharmacy technician wrongly filled the physician’s order for the IV fluid.

According to a report in the Chicago Sun Times based on the Chicago injury attorney for the family of the deceased infant, the IV bag in question was initially properly labeled and noted the high level of sodium that it contained; however, at some point before the nurse administered it, a second label was placed over the first label. The second label incorrectly showed the amount of sodium that the physician ordered, so the nurse was unaware of the fatal dose. The Chicago-area hospital acknowledged the error. We hope that the family of the medical malpractice and wrongful death victim is able to recover full and fair compensation, but realize that nothing will bring them their precious baby back.

Continue reading "Wrongful death lawsuit alleges hospital’s negligence caused infant’s death" »

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is coming under fire in a recent Chicago Tribune article questioning why the Agency failed to investigate the popular crib bumper pads that had trapped and killed infants. In 2006, one baby was determined by the medical examiner to have suffocated after being trapped against padding in the corner of the crib. Federal regulators never examined whether the baby’s death involved an unsafe product and that wrongful death was only one of at least seventeen cases where the CPSC did not investigate the child’s death, even though the CPSC had reports on file suggesting that the unsafe bumper pads played roles in the facilities.

The Chicago Tribune investigated some of the cases and found that the medical examiners and coroners reported that bumper pads were involved in the suffocations. Now, the CPSC is trying to decide if the popular nursery products are safe, but is doing the investigating without having investigated all of the wrongful deaths that involved bumpers. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other consumer protection and advocacy groups have urged parents not to use the crib bumpers because they present such a suffocation risk. Officials are examining if there is a scientific link between bumper pads and suffocations or if other factors, such as blankets, pillows, or medical issues, played the primary role in the babies’ deaths. In addition to the seventeen cases mentioned, the Chicago Tribune also found that officials have investigated at least a dozen infant deaths where bumpers appeared to play a role. The safety agency stated that in those fatalities, the bumpers were not clearly the culprit because of other factors.

Continue reading "Agency questioned for failing to investigate deaths related to crib bumpers" »

The St. Louis Tribune shared a heart-wrenching story this morning of the death of two young girls killed by a pest exterminator’s professional negligence.

According to the wrongful death lawsuit recently filed, the disaster for the family of six began when an employee of Bugman Pest and Lawn owner arrived at the family home for what was intended to be standard pest extermination. Unfortunately, the exterminator was reckless in his work. In an attempt to rid the family yard of mice, the man placed dangerous aluminum phosphide tablets into animal burrows outside the home. He also applied a pesticide known as Fumitoxin near the home.

The fumes from the phosphide seeped into the home from outside, and the Fumitoxin was applied at far too high a level and placed much too close to the house. As a result of the egregious mistakes in using the chemicals, the entire family soon became very ill. The two youngest family members were especially affected by the deadly toxins—two girls, one 4 the other 15 months. Within a mere three days of the extermination both girls would be dead.

Besides filing the personal injury lawsuit to hold the negligent company accountable for its deadly mistakes, the local prosecutor is also considering the criminal sanctions against the negligent worker and company. The use of too many toxins in a way that creates a likelihood of death is a crime, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed After Pesticide Kills Two Children" »

Chicago police are currently questioning a Chicago motorist who struck two boys on Saturday afternoon in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side of Chicago. The motorist was reportedly on a cell phone when the car he was driving struck two boys Saturday afternoon. An 11 year-old boy and a 15 year-old boy were both on foot when a car hit them around noon at 119th Street and Harvard Avenues. Fortunately, the children were stabilized on the scene by paramedics and then taken to an Oak Lawn hospital. Witnesses on the scene described to police that the motorist was on a cell phone during the Chicago car accident.

The National Safety Council estimates that 200,000 car crashes yearly are caused by drivers who are using their cell phones while driving. Talking on a cell phone causes nearly 25% of all Illinois car accidents. Four out of every five accidents are attributed to distracted drivers, which is more than the statistics for accidents attributed to drunk drivers. Drivers talking on cell phones were 18% slower to react to brake lights.

Read more about the Chicago car accident by visiting the Chicago Sun-Times.

Nearly 500,000 bassinets have been recalled due to a risk of the bassinets collapsing. The recalled products are manufactured by the Burlington Basket Company of Burlington, Iowa. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the child product recall last Wednesday. According to the U.S. CPSC, there have been 10 reports of incidents where the bassinets collapsed because the basket’s folding legs were not locked in place. Those incidents where the products collapsed resulted in two infants suffering personal injuries that included a bruise to the head and a bruised shoulder. The product recall involves all of the Burlington Basket bassinets that were manufactured before June 2010 and covers models with folding legs attached to the basket with white plastic pins. These recalled products were sold between January 2003 and August 2010 by Amazon.com and Walmart in addition to other retailers. They were pried around $50.00. The CPSC warned consumers who own the bassinets to stop using them immediately.

If you own the bassinet, do not return it. The company is providing a free kit with detailed instructions on how to properly assemble and firmly lock the bassinet’s folding legs into place.
Read more about the child product recall at CNN.com.

In instances where a child is injured by a product, the Chicago injury attorneys want to point out that generally the child cannot file a product liability lawsuit without the help of a parent, adult, or guardian. This is important to note because children are at high risk for injuries including those caused by birth injuries, cars and other motor vehicle accidents, fireworks, playground equipment, ingestion of household products, household fires, traumatic brain injuries, or product liability. For example, as we recently blogged about, nearly 30 children are injured daily by unsafe cribs.

A couple has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital and some employees after their daughter lost part of all four of her limbs due to a bacterial infection. The child’s parents brought her to the hospital in November of last year after she had experienced a persistent fever, skin discoloration, and weakness. The parents watched as their child became sicker and sicker while they waited for five hours in the emergency room. The father of the injured child allegedly begged doctors and nurses to treat his daughter. Eventually, he forced his way into another office and demanded immediate medical help.

By that point, unfortunately, bacteria had ravaged more of the child’s body and she had to be flown to a different hospital. The child had streptococcus A and due to the spreading infection, both of her feet and her left hand were amputated and part of her right hand was removed. The child is in intensive rehabilitation therapy now and may need therapy and care in the future. Because of the uncertainty for the future, the child’s parents have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit seeking an unknown amount of damages. According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, the hospital “chose to negligently staff, operate, and supervise the emergency room” resulting in the daughter’s extensive surgeries.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers handle a variety of medical malpractice claims for clients in Chicago and throughout Illinois, including those involving delayed diagnosis and missed diagnosis.

If you want to read more about the injured child or medical malpractice lawsuit, please visit Fox40.

Our Chicago wrongful death lawyers were astounded to learn that an average of 26 children are hurt by cribs every daily. Illinois has had its fair share of public crib recalls, thanks to our diligent Illinois attorney general. Now, a recent CNN article addresses that the problems with cribs are widespread.

According to a new study in the journal Pediatrics, an average of 26 children suffer crib-related personal injuries daily. Roughly 9,500 children are treated yearly in the emergency room for crib-related injuries. From 1990 to 2008, there were more than 181,000 children under the age of 2 taken to emergency departments around the country for injuries related to at least one of the nursery products. The most common cause for a child’s personal injury was falling and 83% of the nursery injuries suffered came from cribs. One researcher explained that children are top-heavy and topple forward when they start to lean over the top of a rail of a crib.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has advocated for safer cribs for years. More than 11 million cribs, playpens, or bassinets have been recalled since 2007 and recently the CPSC announced a voluntary product recall of approximately 500,000 bassinets. Recently, the Illinois attorney general’s office alerted Illinois residents to the Jardin Illinois crib recall. The Jardin cribs were recalled after the slats or spindles broke on some cribs, causing a gap and resulting in the entrapment of four infants. The Illinois attorney general has a hotline you can call if you are concerned about your crib at (888) 414-7678.

For more information on the injuries caused by cribs, visit CNN.com .

The State of Illinois’s attorney general Lisa Madigan recognizes the suffocation risk that crib bumpers pose to infants and is urging the trade group that represents makers of baby products to tell its members to stop manufacturing and selling crib bumpers. Federal regulators have begun to examine the safety of bumper pads in response to a Chicago Tribune investigation last month. Federal regulators are now reopening cases where babies have died from suffocating against the dangerous crib bumpers. Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan announced that she wants to be proactive and wants to halt the manufacture and sale of the bumper pads so that the babies are not unnecessarily exposed to potentially dangerous products while the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is working on completing its investigation.

Illinois deputy chief of staff for the attorney general stated that allowing dangerous products to be purchased while known to be unsafe is a recipe for disaster, putting babies at risk. This is why Illinois attorney general Madigan’s office sent a letter to Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association asking the trade group to direct its members to stop making and selling bumper pads, which wrap around the inside of a crib and tie to crib slats. Babies subject to this can suffocate because they lack the motor skills and strength to turn their heads if they roll against a pad that blocks their breathing.

Madigan stressed the importance of the request because product recalls are often ineffective in alerting parents to hazards. She wants to stop the hazardous products before entering homes in the first place. An example pointed out was the drop-side cribs, which were recalled as early as 2007. However, only last month did the Consumer Product Safety Commission ban cribs altogether with the drop-side cribs. Officials are concerned that parents were allowed to purchase faulty cribs for several years and many people likely continue to use them.

Follow the link to visit the Illinois attorney general webpage that explains the crib safety alert.

The Chicago Tribune reports that a 14-month-old girl died in July 2010 as a result of negligence at Alden Village North, a facility in Chicago that cares for young adults and children with developmental disabilities. According to the article, the Illinois Department of Public Health cited the facility for a number of violations surrounding her death and the care of other children living in the facility.

The IDPH investigation found that the nursing home staff failed to contact the young girl's physician in a timely manner after a test revealed that she had MRSA on July 3. Her doctor did not receive her test results for two days, and when she was finally taken to the hospital, it was too late. She died from complications related to the infection.

Continue reading "Alden Village North Cited By State After Young Girl's Death" »

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that a Sacramento mother and the Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a product liability lawsuit against McDonald’s Corporation. In the product liability lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that McDonald’s practice of giving toys with children’s meals is deceptive to children. The group has threatened to sue the McDonald’s company since last summer, repeatedly arguing that the Happy Meals toys constitute a method of circumventing parental control and teach children unhealthy eating. The product liability complaint, which was filed in San Francisco Superior Court, also accuses the company of false advertising. The Los Angeles Times explains that the product liability lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s exploits very young California children and harms their health by advertising unhealthy Happy Meals with toys directly to them.

The plaintiffs are arguing that by advertising that Happy Meals include toys, McDonald’s has helped create and exacerbate a super-sized health crisis in California. The nonprofit group seeks class-action status on behalf of all of the state’s children under 8 years of age who have seen the marketing for the company’s packaged children’s meals since December 2006. The Los Angeles Times added that as the debate over Happy Meals and childhood obesity raged, McDonald’s consistently pointed out that parents can choose apple slices instead of French fries for their children and order milk instead of soda. One issue that the product liability lawsuit is raising is whether people alone are responsible for exercising their free will when making nutritional choices.

Read more about the McDonald’s product liability lawsuit at the Los Angeles Times.

The American Association for Justice reported that unforeseen hazards continue to be present in toys despite recently improved safety standards, demonstrated the necessity for a strong civil justice system that protects children who may be personally injured from such toys. The strong civil justice system must also hold negligent manufacturers accountable. For years, corporations have knowingly shipped unsafe toys with hidden dangers like small parts, loose magnets, asbestos, and other toxic chemicals until outrage from parents and civil actions forced regulators or manufacturers to act. As toys have become more sophisticated, so too have the risks associated with them. As American Association for Justice President reported, protecting our children requires vigilance from everyone. Regulators, parents, manufacturers, and the civil justice system all play a part in keeping dangerous toys off store shelves.

Our Chicago injury attorneys want to highlight recent product recalls that may affect children on your holiday gift lists. Rocking Horse Depot’s small, medium, and large rocking horses with bridles have been recalled because the reins on the rocking horse are long enough to form a loop around a child’s head and neck, posing a strangulation hazard to young children. Additionally, Big Ideas Marketing has issued a product recall to the horse-on-a-stick toys sold at Love’s Travel and Country stores due to a strangulation hazard. Also concerning is that Munchkin, Inc. has issued a product recall for bathtub toys due to a risk of injury. The intake valve on the bottom of the submarine toy can such up loose skin, posing a laceration hazard to children.

Keep up to date on product recalls by visiting the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

An Illinois hospital and physician have agreed to a $6.5 million present cash value settlement for a young girl who suffered a brain injury during birth. The brain injury resulted in debilitating cerebral palsy with mild to moderate mental retardation and occurred when the Illinois hospital physicians failed to timely perform a Cesarean section. The Illinois birth injury settlement was reached during mediation and was approved in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Cook County injury attorneys John J. Perconti and Patricia L. Gifford represented the injured child and her family.

More than ten years ago on September 26, 2000, Denice Cisneros of Chicago went to an Illinois hospital in labor after having a normal and uncomplicated pregnancy with her first child. During her pregnancy, Denice heeded her doctor’s advice and expected a normal delivery. During a prolonged second stage of labor, the family practitioner and labor and delivery nurse failed to determine the presentation of the baby’s head and failed to diagnose cephalic pelvic disproportion, a condition occurring when the baby’s head is too large to fit through the mother’s pelvis. The Illinois medical malpractice also involved the physician and nurse misreading fetal monitoring strips and giving Denice a medication used to induce labor though her contractions were adequate. Yet, despite a four hour second stage of labor, the baby did not descend. When an obstetrician consulted, he witnessed late and variable decelerations on the fetal monitoring strips, but did not order an emergency C-section.

Continue reading "Chicago injury attorneys obtain $6.5 million birth injury settlement " »