Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed the largest known verdict for a plaintiff in an institutional negligence case ever obtained in Illinois. The case is also the first reported case in Illinois dealing with a hospital's liability for negligently credentialing a physician, podiatrist or other health care provider. Christopher T. Hurley and Mark R. McKenna of Hurley McKenna & Mertz obtained the $7,775,668 verdict in August of 2004 for their client, a long-time critical care nurse who went to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, Illinois for removal of a bunion on her left foot. Dr. Paul Kirchner, a podiatrist with surgical privileges at Silver Cross Hospital, performed the procedure, known as a bunionectomy, in spite of the fact that the patient had a diabetic ulcer present at the site of the bunion. Diabetic ulcers are a known source of infections, and podiatric standards generally require that an elective surgery such as a bunionectomy be delayed until the ulcer is completely healed.

During the original trial, the jury heard testimony that Dr. Kirchner made an incision near the diabetic ulcer, and placed a screw in patient's left foot. As a result, the bones in patient's left foot at the site of the screw became severely infected. No attempt was made to remove the infected screw until February of 1999 at Silver Cross Hospital, and trial testimony indicated that Dr. Kirchner was unable to remove the screw at that time because of his alleged lack of proper surgical training.

As a consequence of the negligent October, 1998, left foot surgery at Silver Cross Hospital, the bones in the patient's left foot became so infected that she was forced to undergo the amputation of her left foot. The patient has been unable to return to work as a nurse since the surgery.

During the case, Hurley and McKenna presented evidence to the jury that Silver Cross Hospital granted hospital privileges to Dr. Kirchner in 1992 contrary to the hospital’s own by-laws. The hospital’s by-laws required all podiatrists seeking surgical privileges at the hospital to have completed either a 12-month podiatric surgical residency program, or be board-certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. Dr. Kirchner met neither of these requirements in 1992, when he initially began performing procedures at Silver Cross Hospital, or in 1998, when he performed surgery on the patient. During that time period Dr. Kirchner re-applied several times for continuation of his surgical privileges at Silver Cross Hospital, and each time the hospital’s Board of Trustees granted the privileges in violation of its own rules and by-laws.

Illinois law requires hospitals to use reasonable care to determine the qualifications of health care professionals added to a hospital’s medical staff. A hospital's failure to use reasonable care to select and supervise health care professionals to care for patients, which leads to serious injury, can give rise to a claim for institutional negligence.

In this case the jury agreed that podiatrist Dr. Kirchner was professionally negligent in performing the surgery and failing to properly treat the foot infection, and that Silver Cross Hospital was negligent in giving hospital privileges to Dr. Kirchner to perform the surgery in the first place.

You can read the Illinois Appellate Court's opinion here.

Chicago-based Hurley McKenna & Mertz, founded in 1991, is devoted solely to the representation of severely injured persons. The firm has tried and settled hundreds of cases, and obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts. If you believe you or a loved one has been a victim of institutional negligence by a hospital or health care facility, feel free to contact us at 312/553-4900

I grew up in Minneapolis. I traveled over the I-35W Bridge hundreds of times. I drove under the bridge on a boat dozens of times. I marveled at the beauty of the bridge and the beautiful views from the bridge. I never imagined that the bridge might fail. I assumed that teams of qualified professionals made sure it would not fail.

I was horrified when I heard that those charged with the responsibility to keep the bridge safe did nothing despite knowing the bridge might fail. I am frightened that those same people will likely never be held accountable for their complacency. I fear that the only ones who will pay for this lack of responsibility are the friends and loved ones of those who died or were injured in the collapse.

Tort immunity, a concept that shields governments from liability in injury cases, may prevent those injured and the families of those killed from ever obtaining justice in this tragedy. After the recovery effort has finished, and the investigations are complete, talented lawyers will try vigorously to hold the responsible governmental and private entities accountable. Hopefully tort immunity will not block their efforts.

I am a Chicago lawyer and I fight for the rights of injured people. Efforts at protecting people and companies whose actions can kill and injure, commonly called tort reform and tort immunity, serve only to breed complacency and sanction irresponsible behavior. Tort reform and tort immunity are bad for everyone. That is why I, and the lawyers at my firm, remain committed to the fight against tort reform.

The threat of product liability judgments helps keep product manufacturers honest.

CNN reports that Fisher Price has announced it plans to recall nearly one million plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products. (See here for the full story.)

It has been estimated that the recall will cost Fisher Price $30,000,000.00. This cost, however, is far less than what Fisher Price might face in product liability lawsuits if the products were allowed to remain in the marketplace and children were harmed.

There is no excuse for any product manufacturer, much less a giant multi-national corporation exposing our children to toxins. Fisher Price needs to provide significantly better oversight of the products it imports from China. It should start by testing the products before it places them in stores.

I think this is an evidence that lawyers make the world safer for everyone.