Personal Injury Law

Iliniois Medical Malpracitce Plaintiff Awarded $24 Million

By Jeff Lowe, Esq.

In an Illinois Medical Malpractice case a jury in La Salle County Circuit Court decided an Illinois Plaintiff should receive nearly $24 million from a doctor and nurse practitioner in a malpractice case.

The 34-year-old Streator man filed a lawsuit in May 2003 against Ephraim W. Batambuze, M.D., John E. Podzamsky, D.O., registered nurse anesthetist Linda Blair of A.T. Associates and nurse practitioner Patricia Duffield, as well as against Batambuze's practice, Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants.

Porter said he entered St. Mary's Hospital in Streator in November 2001 for surgery involving a kidney stone in his ureter. During surgery, he underwent cardiac arrest and the flow of oxygen to his brain was interrupted.

As a result of the oxygen interruption, Porter lost most of his fine motor skills and suffers from spastic movement, severe double vision and slow, slurred speech, making him difficult to understand. However, Porter, who uses a wheelchair, can understand others. He is married and has two children. Before the surgery, Porter worked for a phone company.

The trial began Jan. 30 before Chief Judge James Lanuti. On Feb. 8, the plaintiff settled with Porter for $1 million each. The trial continued and on Thursday, jurors ruled against the remaining defendants, awarding the Illinois man $23,737,234.

A video recording titled "A Day in the Life" was shown to jurors. The video had no sound, which was meant to make jurors concentrate on the images. The video showed Porter's daily struggles. The video showed the injured plaintiff trying hard to do things and that in spite of the hard ships he faced that he still had a sense of humor.

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).