Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. has obtained a $1,800,000 settlement for their clients in a case involving the death of a 48 year-old hospital patient in Lake County, Illinois. Several days after the patient was admitted to the hospital, a physician ordered a STAT venous duplex ultrasound to investigate his suspicion that the patient had developed deep vein thrombosis in her right leg. However, the ordered ultrasound test was never performed, and the following day the patient died of a blood clot that originated in the patient’s right leg and traveled to her lungs causing a pulmonary embolism.
The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Joshua L. Weisberg and Melanie J. VanOverloop of Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C.. They argued the hospital’s failure to carry out the doctor’s order was the result of both institutional negligence and nursing negligence, and because the test was not performed the patient’s deep vein thrombosis was not was not diagnosed or treated, directly resulting in the patient’s death the following day. According to lead trial attorney Joshua L. Weisberg, “This case involved a needless and tragic death that was easily preventable. The doctor correctly identified the possibility of a blood clot in the patient’s leg and ordered the appropriate test to diagnose it, but the hospital and its employees failed to follow proper steps to ensure the ordered test was performed. While we cannot erase the tragic results of what occurred due to the Hospital’s negligence, we are satisfied that we have at least held them accountable. What happened here should never happen in a hospital, and we hope the hospital takes steps to prevent this from ever happening again.”