Personal Injury Law

Illinois Surgery Malpractice Lawsuit: Woman Says She is Now a Quadriplegic

E. Marlene Summers is suing Good Samaritan Hospital, Kevin Claffey, and Waqqas Kahn for Illinois medical malpractice. She claims she became a quadriplegic after undergoing surgery at the Mt. Vernon hospital. She is seeking $150,000 plus costs for the medical error that caused her to sustain a spinal cord injury.

According to her Illinois medical malpractice complaint, Dr. Kahn recommended that she use a trial dorsal column stimulator. The medical device is supposed to use electrical impulses to stimulate nerves. It is implanted in patients that suffer from severe and chronic pain.

Summers says that Kahn and Claffey did not give her any antibiotics before the procedure, which occurred on September 26, 2008. On October 1 of that year, she went back to the hospital because she was suffering from an infection in the area of the body where the surgery was performed. Doctors had to take out the stimulator.

Summers says that she was back at the hospital three weeks later because she was experiencing uneasiness and fatigue. Doctors performed an MRI, revealing osteomyelitis with an epidural abscess that was creating severe central cranal stenosis. She had to be flown to another hospital and was later moved to a residential care facility.

Summers says she needs 100% assistance now and has no feeling in her body below the chest. She is now only able to slightly move her shoulders and arms.

She contends that the defendants failed to perform a proper pre-operative workup, did not give her the correct antibiotic regimen, did not order a cervical MRI, failed to properly treat her infection, and did not diagnose her surgical abscess in a timely manner. She also claims that doctors that did not have the right credentials were allowed to perform certain procedures.

Some Examples of Chicago, Illinois Surgical Malpractice:
? Wrong site surgery
? Improper post-operative care
? Anesthesia errors
? Accidentally puncturing an organ
? Leaving a surgical instrument in the body

Woman claims she became quadriplegic after surgery at Mount Vernon hospital, The Record, July 22, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Medical Malpractice and Surgical errors/complications, Wrong Diagnosis

Medical Malpractice, Nolo

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on August 02, 2010 (boomark / email).