Patients rely on doctors, hospitals, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to provide competent medical care. A poor medical outcome does not automatically mean malpractice occurred. When a healthcare professional fails to meet the applicable standard of care and that failure causes additional injury or death, however, Illinois law may provide a medical-malpractice claim.
At Robert Edens Law Office, we represent patients and families in medical-negligence cases throughout Lake County, McHenry County, Cook County, and surrounding Northern Illinois communities.
Medical-malpractice cases require careful investigation because we must establish more than the existence of an injury. Illinois law generally requires proof of the applicable professional standard of care, a negligent failure to comply with that standard, and a resulting injury proximately caused by the breach. Expert medical testimony is ordinarily necessary unless the negligence is sufficiently apparent to fall within a limited common-knowledge exception.
Call us at (847) 395-2200 or contact us to discuss a potential Illinois medical-malpractice claim.
Medical malpractice is professional negligence arising from medical, hospital, or other healing-art care.
An unexpected result, complication, unsuccessful surgery, or worsening disease does not by itself establish negligence. Medicine involves risks even when appropriate care is provided.
The legal question is whether the healthcare provider failed to comply with the professional standard applicable under the circumstances and whether that failure caused additional injury.
Illinois courts describe the essential elements as the applicable standard of care, a negligent breach of that standard, and proximate causation between the breach and the patient’s injury.
That causation element can be especially important. A doctor may make an error without causing additional harm, or a patient may experience a serious outcome despite medically appropriate treatment. A viable malpractice case generally requires evidence connecting the negligent act or omission to the injury being claimed.
Most jurors are not trained to determine whether a surgeon used an appropriate technique, whether a radiologist should have recognized an abnormality, or whether a physician should have ordered a particular diagnostic test.
Illinois therefore generally requires expert testimony concerning professional standards and deviations from those standards. The Illinois Supreme Court has explained that expert testimony is ordinarily necessary unless the physician’s negligence is so apparent, or the treatment so commonly understood, that a layperson can evaluate it without specialized medical knowledge.
The qualifications of the expert also matter. Illinois courts apply requirements concerning the expert’s professional licensure, familiarity with the applicable standards, and competence to testify concerning the particular healthcare profession and treatment involved.
This is one reason we do not determine whether a case has merit merely from a patient’s dissatisfaction with the outcome.
We obtain and analyze the relevant medical records and, when appropriate, consult qualified healthcare professionals about the care provided and the relationship between that care and the injury.
Illinois has a special filing requirement for healing-art malpractice actions.
Section 2-622 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure generally requires the plaintiff’s attorney to file an affidavit stating that the facts have been reviewed with a qualified health professional who has concluded in a written report that there is a reasonable and meritorious cause for filing the action.
The reviewing professional must satisfy statutory qualifications involving knowledge of the relevant issues, recent practice or teaching in the applicable medical field, and competence concerning the subject of the case.
A separate certificate and written report generally must be filed for each defendant.
Illinois law provides a limited procedure when the necessary consultation cannot be completed before the statute of limitations would impair the claim.
Under Section 2-622, an affidavit may state that the consultation could not be obtained in time because of the approaching limitations deadline. The required certificate and written report must then generally be filed within 90 days after the complaint.
This procedure should not be treated as an ordinary extension of time. Medical-malpractice deadlines require careful analysis before filing.
A diagnostic error may create a malpractice claim when the applicable medical standard required additional testing, referral, evaluation, or recognition of a condition and the delay caused additional harm.
Potential cases can involve cancer, cardiovascular conditions, infections, strokes, neurological disorders, internal injuries, or other serious diseases.
The existence of a missed diagnosis alone is not enough.
We generally need expert evidence addressing what a reasonably careful healthcare professional should have done and whether earlier diagnosis or treatment would probably have changed the patient’s medical outcome.
Illinois recognizes causation theories involving lost chances in appropriate medical-malpractice cases, but causation still cannot be merely speculative. Expert evidence must connect the negligence to the increased harm or lost opportunity for recovery.
Surgery can result in complications even when everyone follows appropriate medical standards.
A malpractice claim may arise, however, when evidence establishes a preventable surgical error or a failure in perioperative care.
Potential issues can include operating on the wrong anatomical location, damaging nearby structures, improper surgical technique, failure to recognize or respond to complications, anesthesia errors, inadequate postoperative monitoring, or failures in communication among members of the surgical team.
Determining whether an adverse surgical result represents a recognized complication or negligent care usually requires specialist review of operative reports, imaging, hospital records, subsequent treatment, and other medical evidence.
Medication injuries can arise at several stages of care.
Potential errors may involve prescribing the wrong medication, using an inappropriate dose, failing to account for a documented allergy, improperly administering medication, failing to monitor the patient, or dispensing medication incorrectly.
A medication complication alone does not establish malpractice. We must determine what the provider knew or should have known and whether the alleged error actually caused the patient’s injury.
A hospital malpractice case does not always involve only the physician.
Nurses and hospital personnel can have independent professional responsibilities concerning patient assessment, monitoring, communication, fall protection, medication administration, response to changing conditions, and other aspects of care.
The Illinois Supreme Court has specifically recognized that nursing standards can require qualified nursing expert testimony distinct from physician standards.
Depending on the circumstances, a hospital may also face liability through the acts of employees or under other legally recognized theories.
We determine which provider was responsible for each disputed aspect of care rather than treating “the hospital” as a single undifferentiated defendant.
Birth-injury cases can involve some of the most serious medical consequences.
Potential allegations may concern prenatal diagnosis, labor monitoring, response to fetal distress, timing of delivery, Caesarean-section decisions, medication, neonatal treatment, or other obstetrical and newborn care.
These cases require careful analysis of maternal records, fetal monitoring, delivery records, neonatal records, imaging, laboratory results, and expert opinions.
A difficult delivery or child born with a medical condition does not automatically establish obstetrical negligence. We must establish both deviation from the appropriate professional standard and medical causation.
See our Lake County Birth Injury Law Firm
Medical malpractice can also arise from a failure to provide information necessary for informed consent.
Illinois law specifically addresses failure-to-inform allegations within the Section 2-622 certification process. When the claim involves failure to inform a patient about consequences of a procedure, the attorney must certify that the reviewing healthcare professional concluded that a reasonable professional would have provided the information at issue.
An informed-consent claim should not be reduced to whether the patient signed a form.
The substantive issue may involve whether the patient received the medically required information about the proposed treatment, material risks, alternatives, and consequences necessary to make an informed decision.
Medical decisions often depend on X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, pathology, laboratory tests, and other diagnostic information.
A radiologist, pathologist, treating physician, or another provider may potentially be involved when a significant abnormality is missed or misinterpreted.
These cases typically require comparison of the original study with subsequent findings and expert analysis concerning whether the abnormality should reasonably have been identified at the earlier time.
Causation remains essential. We must also establish that timely recognition probably would have affected the patient’s treatment or outcome.
A successful Illinois medical-malpractice case can potentially include compensatory damages for the losses actually caused by the negligent healthcare.
Depending on the evidence, those losses may include past and future medical expenses, rehabilitation and care expenses, lost earnings, diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, physical impairment, disfigurement, and other legally recoverable economic and noneconomic losses.
Illinois law requires medical-malpractice verdicts to separately identify categories of economic loss such as healthcare expenses and lost wages or earning capacity.
The value of a malpractice claim therefore depends on both the medical error and the consequences it caused.
A temporary additional hospitalization presents a different damages case from permanent neurological injury requiring lifetime assistance.
Illinois law is explicit on this point.
Section 2-1115 provides that punitive, exemplary, vindictive, and aggravated damages are not recoverable in cases seeking damages for medical, hospital, or other healing-art malpractice.
This is an important correction to the existing Edens medical-malpractice page, which currently says punitive damages may sometimes be awarded.
An Illinois medical-malpractice case should be valued based on legally recoverable compensatory damages rather than a potential punitive award.
Illinois generally applies modified comparative negligence to negligence claims.
If contributory fault attributed to the plaintiff is 50 percent or less of the proximate cause of the injury, recovery is reduced according to that percentage. If the plaintiff’s fault is more than 50 percent, recovery is barred.
In medical-malpractice litigation, comparative-fault allegations can involve issues such as failing to follow medical advice, not taking prescribed medication, missing recommended appointments, or failing to provide accurate medical information.
Such conduct does not automatically establish comparative negligence. The defendant must connect the alleged conduct to the injury for which compensation is sought.
Medical negligence can result in death immediately or after an extended period of additional treatment.
When qualifying malpractice causes death, the representative of the estate may potentially pursue claims under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act and Survival Act in conjunction with the underlying medical-negligence allegations.
Those claims can involve losses suffered by the surviving spouse and next of kin as well as qualifying damages belonging to the deceased patient before death.
Our Illinois Wrongful Death Lawyers page explains those distinctions in greater detail.
Medical-malpractice deadlines are substantially more complicated than the ordinary personal-injury statute of limitations.
For claims arising from patient care against licensed physicians, dentists, registered nurses, and hospitals, Illinois generally requires the action to be filed within two years after the claimant knew or reasonably should have known of the injury or death. The statute also imposes a four-year outer statute of repose measured from the act or omission alleged to have caused the injury, subject to statutory exceptions.
That means discovering malpractice three years after treatment does not necessarily provide two additional years to sue.
Illinois has a specialized provision for minors.
When the person entitled to bring the medical-malpractice claim was younger than 18 when the cause of action accrued, Section 13-212 generally provides an eight-year period from the act or omission, but the action may not be filed after the person’s 22nd birthday.
Legal disability and fraudulent concealment can create additional statutory issues.
These deadlines should never be calculated solely from general information on a website.
Medical-malpractice investigations often require a much larger record than the final hospitalization or procedure.
We may need earlier records to establish the patient’s baseline, records from multiple specialists, diagnostic imaging, laboratory data, medication records, nursing documentation, operative reports, consent materials, rehabilitation records, and subsequent treatment.
We also need sufficient time for qualified professionals to review the care before filing the Section 2-622 certification.
Waiting until the statute of limitations is approaching can make a medically complex case substantially more difficult to evaluate.
No. A complication or unsuccessful outcome does not automatically establish negligence. We must generally prove the appropriate standard of care, a breach, and an injury proximately caused by that breach.
Usually. Illinois courts generally require qualified expert testimony concerning the medical standard of care and deviation unless the negligence is sufficiently obvious to fall within a narrow common-knowledge exception.
It is the written report from a qualified health professional supporting a finding that there is reasonable and meritorious cause for filing a healing-art malpractice action. The attorney generally files an accompanying affidavit with the complaint.
Potentially. Liability depends on who was involved, the employment and agency relationships, and the acts or omissions that caused the injury.
Potentially. Nurses have professional standards applicable to nursing care, and Illinois courts recognize that those standards may require qualified nursing expert testimony.
Potentially, if qualified medical evidence establishes that the applicable standard required earlier diagnosis or testing and that the delay caused additional injury or a legally recognized lost chance.
Not merely because a complication occurred. The issue is whether negligent medical care caused the complication or failed to identify and appropriately address it.
No. Illinois expressly prohibits punitive damages in medical, hospital, and other healing-art malpractice actions.
Claims against qualifying physicians, dentists, registered nurses, and hospitals are generally subject to a two-year discovery period and a four-year statute of repose, with specialized rules and exceptions. Minor claims have different provisions.
There is no reliable average. Value depends on the medical negligence, strength of expert causation evidence, additional medical expenses, permanent disability, future care, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and other consequences caused by the malpractice.
Medical-malpractice cases require us to answer difficult questions: What standard of care applied? What should the healthcare provider have done differently? Would appropriate treatment have changed the outcome? Which providers were responsible? What additional injury did the negligence cause? And can qualified medical experts support those conclusions?
At Robert Edens Law Office, we investigate those questions before treating an adverse medical outcome as a malpractice claim.
We represent patients and families throughout Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Gurnee, Lake Zurich, Round Lake, Lake Villa, Lindenhurst, Fox Lake, Libertyville, Woodstock, McHenry, Crystal Lake, Barrington, and surrounding Northern Illinois communities.
Call us at (847) 395-2200 or contact us to request a consultation concerning a potential Illinois medical-malpractice claim.
For broader information about serious injury and wrongful-death claims, visit our Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers page and Illinois Personal Injury And Workers’ Compensation FAQs.
Every medical-malpractice claim depends on its individual medical records, expert evidence, timing, injuries, and applicable law. Prior results do not guarantee a similar result, and this page provides general information rather than legal or medical advice concerning a particular patient or treatment.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Office, have offices in Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Woodstock and Barrington. We represent clients throughout the communities of Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Barrington, Woodstock, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Gurnee, Lake Zurich, Round Lake, McHenry, Cary, Crystal Lake, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Wheeling, North Chicago, Zion, Inverness, Palatine, Wauconda, Island Lake, Fox Lake, Barrington Hills, Spring Grove, Lake Bluff, Lakemoor, Long Grove, Lake Villa, Kildeer, Wadsworth, Indian Creek, Fox River Grove, Lindenhurst and other cities within Lake and McHenry Counties Illinois.
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