Injury Due to Hospital Medication Error

[Melvin Goodslob]

A malpractice attorney can charge you

1. buy the hour at the attorneys determined hourly rate, and that rate can be hundreds of dollars an hour

or

2. on a contingency fee basis, expect it to be somewhere between 30% to 40%, and in rare cases up to 50% of the settlement or award

But in Illinois, you have a sliding scale.

Sliding scale fees may not exceed one third of first $150,000; 25% of next $850,000, and 20% of damages exceeding 1 million. (Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. §110. 2. 1114) Attorney may apply to the court for additional compensation under certain circumstances. (§735. 5/2. 111 4)

Probable outcomes:

1. the defendant successfully argued there case

2. the plaintiff wins an award but the defendant appeals

3. the plaintiff and defendant agree to a settlement

These are the only probable outcomes that we can predict, because we have no other information then what your telling us.

There you go, "Who's That Goy" said something useful. Illinois takes some of the trouble out of negotiating a fee with a malpractice attorney. Thanks. Your "Probable Outcomes" response qualifies you to work at Microsoft's tech support hotline, your response is accurate and completely worthless to me.

[free9man]

There you go, "Who's That Goy" said something useful. Illinois takes some of the trouble out of negotiating a fee with a malpractice attorney. Thanks. Your "Probable Outcomes" response qualifies you to work at Microsoft's tech support hotline, your response is accurate and completely worthless to me.

He answered your question and you belittle him? That's not a good way to get help from folks. You asked how much med-mal atty will cost...he told you ballpark figures. You asked for possible outcomes, he gave you some. It is impossible to predict what the outcome will be. Consult with some med-mal attys and that will give you an idea. If no one wants your case hourly or contingent, you probably don't have a winning case. If one wants to take it but only on an hourly, it probably means you have a weak case. If one will take it on contingency, you might have a winner.

[medmal]

I think it would be extremely - if not prohibitively - difficult to prove that the medication directly contributed to the patient's death.

This was, as lealea said, a very sick patient.

I would think the opposite - since a primary goal of care for HF is to diminish strain on the heart, and hyperthyroidism stresses the heart as one of its most damaging and obvious effects.

Defense would have to look at the prognosis before the overdose, and compare how that had changed after the overdose. Whether the patient was admitted because he was end-stage would seem to matter a lot as far as damages go. A wrinkle here is that one of the drugs used to treat HF (i.e., beta blocker) might very well mask the effects of excess thyroid hormone - such as rapid and/or irregular heart rate.

The patient was already very sick with CHF & renal failure.

If the patient was already being treated with Synthroid, the increased dosage for such a short period of time may or may not have contributed to their problems, hence the dosage is an important factor.

Since Synthroid has a "narrow therapeutic index" and Don Rickles has already said the dose was doubled, that might not apply a whole lot. A possible exception is if the patient was on a very low dose such as 25 mcg, and so going to 50mcg might not be nearly as bad as going from a more typical 75mcg to 150mcg. (There is growing opinion that many Pts are receiving too little T4, even at 75mcg.)

Another possible factor might be if the Pt has diminished ability to convert the mostly inactive T4 to the active T3 - therefore an OD would not be as harmful.

(A little wrinkle is that hypoT might cause HF, though that is probably not relevant nor provable.)

If one wants to take it but only on an hourly, it probably means you have a weak case.

Or that he has some free time and wants to make some cash. Or that he thinks it is a winning case but the award will be small - e.g. if the Pt was likely going to die shortly anyway, even without the medical error.

[Melvin Goodslob]

I would think the opposite - since a primary goal of care for HF is to diminish strain on the heart, and hyperthyroidism stresses the heart as one of its most damaging and obvious effects.

Defense would have to look at the prognosis before the overdose, and compare how that had changed after the overdose. Whether the patient was admitted because he was end-stage would seem to matter a lot as far as damages go. A wrinkle here is that one of the drugs used to treat HF (i.e., beta blocker) might very well mask the effects of excess thyroid hormone - such as rapid and/or irregular heart rate.


Since Synthroid has a "narrow therapeutic index" and Don Rickles has already said the dose was doubled, that might not apply a whole lot. A possible exception is if the patient was on a very low dose such as 25 mcg, and so going to 50mcg might not be nearly as bad as going from a more typical 75mcg to 150mcg. (There is growing opinion that many Pts are receiving too little T4, even at 75mcg.)

Another possible factor might be if the Pt has diminished ability to convert the mostly inactive T4 to the active T3 - therefore an OD would not be as harmful.

(A little wrinkle is that hypoT might cause HF, though that is probably not relevant nor provable.)


Or that he has some free time and wants to make some cash. Or that he thinks it is a winning case but the award will be small - e.g. if the Pt was likely going to die shortly anyway, even without the medical error.

Thanks Medmal. I like your work, do you practice in Illinois? I am too young to remember any of Don Rickles work, except Don getting beaten with a phone by Joe Pesci in Casino. The most disturbing ending scene to an acting career since Marlon Brando's slobering bloated appearance at the end of Apocalypse Now. Oh, wait...Marlon sodomized someone in the movie 'Last Tango In Paris', was that before or after Apocalypse?