Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Illinois

Burn Victim

My grandmother is in a non-responsive state. She had the feeding tube removed from her nose and put back in her stomach however when she came back from the hospital for this outaptient procedure she came back to the nursing home facility with a burn. We asked the doctor about it and he stated they did not do it and blames it on the nursing home. We check our grandmother everything day from head to toe to see if she has any problems and this burn was not there until she came back from the hospital for the procedure and the nursing home also said the same thing. Can we sue the doctor/hospital since she is in a non-responsive state?


Asked on 4/15/09, 10:43 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Re: Burn Victim

Yes. The physicians and the nursing home all have a responsibility and duty of care to protect patients in their care, regardless of a patient's or resident's mental condition. I have seen these types of nursing home negligence cases before.

What kind of 'nonresponsive' state? Is she in a persistent vegetative state? Is she terminally ill? There is a lot of information that needs to be discussed.

Please feel free to contact me regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

Paul Fine

The Law Office of Paul R. Fine, P.C.

Chicago, IL

[email protected]

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Answered on 4/15/09, 10:57 am

Re: Burn Victim

Thank you for your question. It is so sad and unacceptable that your grandmother is being treated this way and no one accepts responsibility

We certainly know that one of the two did it and both are responsible for documenting the condition of your grandmother.

Cases against doctors and nursing homes are quite complicatedmore details are needed before anyone can give you guidance that is worthwhile. If this was not an injury case I would ask you questions in this forum and ask you to respond by making a supplemental posting. However, there are privacy issues when there is an injury and a public forum is not approriate. Please feel free to contact me so that we can discuss your grandmother's injury.

Respectfully,

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Answered on 4/15/09, 11:24 am


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