NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Chicago, IL, United States, 01/28/2009 - Corboy & Demetrio, a Chicago-based personal injury law firm, and David Barry, Jr., one of its Chicago personal injury lawyers, settled a medical malpractice lawsuit recently for $3.45 million.

The lawsuit involved the failure to timely treat a patient who went to the Hospital’s emergency room with severe leg pain and waited four hours to be seen by a physician. The patient ultimately had a through-the knee amputation of her leg.

In September, 2003, Marlene Bruhmuller, 61, went to the Emergency Department at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, Illinois with complaints of severe pain in her left leg. Two years prior, she had undergone a femoral-popliteal bypass on the same leg for vascular insufficiency and had been told by her surgeon that she needed to go to the emergency room immediately if she ever developed severe pain in the leg.

Marlene arrived at the Emergency Department 30 minutes after the pain began, but the triaging nurse categorized her as “urgent” rather than “emergent” and she waited four hours before being seen by a physician. Once evaluated, she was immediately diagnosed with a blockage of her bypass graft and taken directly to surgery by Dr. Daniel Vera. He, however, failed to restore adequate blood flow to the extremity and did not transfer her to Loyola University Medical Center until the next day.

As a result of the delays, Marlene suffered a through-the-knee amputation of the left leg.

“Mrs. Bruhmuller did exactly what she had been instructed to do when she went to the Emergency Department with her leg pain,” said Chicago personal injury lawyer David R. Barry, Jr. “This is a time-sensitive problem and there is every reason to believe she would have been fine with proper and timely care.”

Silver Cross Hospital paid $2.5 million of the settlement and Dr. Vera paid $950,000.

Agency / Source: Corboy & Demetrio

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