Rapoport Weisberg Sims & VanOverloop filed a medical malpractice lawsuit today in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, against an emergency room physician and hospital for negligent care of their client. According to the lawsuit, the firm’s client, a 52-year-old carpenter, suffered a right shoulder injury after falling off his bike in Franklin Park, Illinois. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital emergency room. As he sat in the emergency room waiting to be treated he was internally bleeding from a torn artery in his shoulder. Nevertheless, the emergency room physician and staff took over eight hours before finally determining the extent of his injury and transferring him to another hospital for surgery. As a result of this long delay in treatment he developed a hematoma producing pressure on the nerves of his right arm which caused a severe and permanent brachial plexus injury. The lawsuit alleges the emergency room physician and hospital violated the standard of care by failing to timely and properly evaluate their patient so his internal bleed could be stopped before it resulted in more severe and permanent injury.