Personal Injury Law: Do you have a wrongful death lawsuit?

It’s true a wrongful death jury award can never bring a loved one back. A personal injury law victory also does not fill the void left when a wife and mother is suddenly taken away through the negligence of others.

Gordon Gibb of www.lawyersandsettlements.com tells the story of a legal case where simple act cost someone her life and $2.6 million in compensation.

“While any medical condition can be complex in nature,” says Mr. Gibb, ” the case that pitted the family of a deceased woman against Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Illinois hinged on a questionable hospital protocol that is alleged to have only required a nurse to place a lab report into a folder, and place it on a doctor’s desk without verbally informing the doctor-or any doctor, for that matter–that the contents of the file were key to the survivability of a serious infection.”

According to the findings of a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit brought against Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, the plaintiffs were in southern Illinois visiting their son and his family for Mother’s Day in May 2004 when the 60-year-old woman became ill with a fever. After an examination at the hospital’s emergency department on the Saturday evening, blood samples were sent to a laboratory for testing.

The summary of the ensuing trial reports that the laboratory informed the emergency room charge nurse at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale that the blood cultures tested positive for bacteria, suggesting the presence of a serious infection.

“However, rather than immediately informing the emergency room doctor of the findings, the report was placed in a folder and–according to Memorial Hospital protocol and procedure–placed on the doctor’s desk…where it stayed for 12 hours,” writes Gibb. “The reason(s) why the doctor didn’t get to his desk that day were not identified.”

Mr. Gibb goes on to say that during the 12-hour interval, the visiting couple returned to their home base of Chicago, where they promptly reported to the emergency room after the stricken woman continued to complain of feeling unwell.

“It is here that a diagnosis of e Coli was established, and a treatment program was put into place. However, given the age of the patient and complications arising from diabetes the patient did not respond well to treatment, and despite efforts that were described as ‘heroic’ the stricken woman died the following morning, the Monday after Mother’s Day.”

To learn more about the family’s wrongful death case, visit the link on my bio page and search ‘Wrongful Death Worth $2.6 Million’.