Case Number 95 L 0428
Circuit Court of Cook County, IL
$6.1 Million Award

In this case, Tom Knight, assisted at trial by Brian Diamond, represented a young boy and his parents who suffered a terrible injury and loss due to medical negligence. The mother, who had previously delivered a baby by caesarian section, was admitted to Westlake hospital and was given pitocin to induce her labor. During the labor her uterus ruptured. As a result, the baby suffered a severe shortage of oxygen to his brain. The doctor was at home and the baby was not delivered until almost an hour later, when an emergency caesarian section was finally done. The baby was born severely brain damaged, which left him with cerebral palsy, severe developmental delay and epilepsy. The mother eventually had to have a hysterectomy because of the damage to her uterus. Thus, she and the father will have no more children in the future.

By persistently pursuing discovery of hospital documents, Attorney Knight was able to unearth written hospital policies which cautioned against induced labor for a woman with a history of a caesarian section delivery such as in this case; and which required continuous fetal monitoring of the mother throughout an induced labor. Based on dozens of sworn depositions of doctors, nurses and others -- and with the professional expertise of many nationally recognized medical experts he researched and recruited -- Knight was eventually able to put forth a strong case that the nurses and the obstetrician had not followed the hospital policies, had not properly monitored the mother, and had not properly responded to signs of the ruptured uterus when it happened. Employing the expertise of other highly qualified experts in the care of handicapped children, solid evidence was developed to demonstrate that the young boy and his parents needed a large sum of money to help them deal with the problems they had suffered because of the negligent medical treatment they had received.

The years of thorough and painstaking efforts to build a strong case of both liability and damages were finally rewarded when, in September, 1999, the defendants agreed to settle the case for a total of $6,100,000.00. As a result of the settlement, the now six year old boy's extraordinary future medical and caretaking needs will be adequately funded; and his parents can get the financial support they need to continue to give him the best care they can, while recouping something of the normal life they once had.