Aurora Medical Malpractice Lawyer

When hospital staffs fail to meet the needs of their patients or physicians act negligently and a patient suffers complications; Illinois law affords the patient the opportunity to file a medical negligence lawsuit against the individual or the facility. The Aurora medical malpractice attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC regularly prosecute cases involving medical errors. Our Illinois medical negligence attorneys appreciate the impact a medical error has on both the individual and his or her family and always work towards the goal of maximizing our clients’ recoveries. We have highlighted information on some of the hospitals and surgical centers in the Aurora area and what may give rise to a claim against them below.

The City of Aurora is the second largest city in Illinois due to rapid growth over the last twenty years. Almost 200,000 people call the city home and Aurora is home to a diverse population comprised of members from numerous races and economic classes. The median household income in Aurora is just under $55,000 and its population is 68% white, 32% Latino and 11% African American. With a large population comes the need to provide emergency medical treatment and preventative care in a timely manner with limited resources.

Medical errors and negligence are not malicious or premeditative events in which doctors or nurses plan to injure their patients and doctors are often under extreme pressure when taking care of patients to make sure that they perform their duties properly. Medical mistakes are far more common than physicians want to admit, however, and medical facilities and those providing care are still responsible when a patient is injured during a procedure or as the result of poor care. If you or a loved one are seriously injured or die due to medical errors, it is well within your rights to pursue a claim.

In order to win an Illinois malpractice lawsuit, you must be able to prove the following.

• The medical professional or facility where the care was provided took actions that directly resulted in your injuries. Poor decisions throughout your treatment or procedure or the lack of proper hospital safety protocol can be contributing factors.
• Your doctor, surgeon or nurse violated his or her duty of care. This is defined as taking the same actions that other professionals with similar credentials would have under similar circumstances.
• Your injuries resulted in the need for additional procedures or care or your loved one passed due to complications brought on by his or her injuries.

Aurora is home to two large healthcare facilities which provide ambulatory care and offer surgical procedures. When evaluating how well each facility has done in meeting its duty of care to patients, it is important to consider factors such as environment, readmission rates and how well patients are educated by staff on their conditions and treatment. We’ve provided this information for you below.

1325 North Highland Avenue
Aurora, IL 60506
630-859-2222

Presence Mercy Medical Center is designated as a Level II Trauma Center and approved to provide perinatal care and emergency pediatric care. Its readmission rates are almost perfectly in line with the national and state averages for similar facilities. Patients suffering from pneumonia were readmitted 17.2% of the time within 30 days of discharge and heart failure and heart attack patients had readmission rates of 20.7% and 18.6%, respectively.

It is extremely important to take whatever steps needed to ensure patients will not require readmission, as evidenced by the mortality data. Half of heart failure readmissions and almost all of heart attack readmissions ended in the death of the patient.

According to patient surveys, 64% of patients were completely satisfied with their care at this facility and only 51% agreed that they understood their care or instructions for home care. The concerning revelation that surfaced from survey data is that only 69% of patients’ rooms and bathrooms were cleaned regularly. Unsanitary environments are conducive to the spread of infection and can result in patient harm even when surgeons and doctors perform their duties properly.

2000 Ogden Avenue
Aurora, IL 60504
630-978-6200

Rush-Copley is one of the more highly regarded medical facilities in the state and patients surveyed generally felt that nurse staff and doctors are far more communicative about their treatment than elsewhere. Its readmission rates are significantly lower than the state average— 15.4% of pneumonia patients returned within 30 days, 19.7% of heart failure patients returned and 16.3% of those suffering from heart attacks were readmitted.

77% of patients surveyed stated they would recommend this facility to others— the exact same number who believed that their bathrooms and rooms were kept sanitary and clean. Even though Rush-Copley rated well in most areas, only 56% of its patients were discharged with full understanding of their treatment.

In order to prevent frivolous lawsuits over matters that have occurred well in the past, every state has a statute of limitations that limits the time you have to file your lawsuit. It is important that your Aurora medical malpractice attorney has ample time to collect evidence and assess the chance of a successful recovery during this time and waiting for too long can inhibit your lawyer’s ability to do his or her job. Normally, you have two years to file in the State of Illinois, but statutes may vary depending on the type of case that you have.

Another reason you should act quickly is that it becomes much more difficult to preserve the integrity of evidence or for you and others to remember key events long after they have occurred. Any evidence or recollection of the smallest detail can have a great impact on the success of your case and it becomes more difficult to accumulate the evidence required to win your case if a significant amount of time has passed.

The process of filing your Aurora medical malpractice claim begins with the process of discovery, which is an investigation by your attorney to uncover the facts of the case and to determine whether it merits being pursued further. You can learn more about this process by contacting one of the Aurora medical malpractice attorneys of Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC. We will be happy to sit down with you free of charge to review your legal options and collect all of the information needed to take these first steps.

The compensation that you may be able to expect in the form of damages can include the cost of your treatment or procedure as well as any additional treatment needed to address your complications or injuries, your out of pocket expenses, the cost of rehabilitative therapy and your pain and suffering. In addition, if your injuries are severe enough to limit or impair your ability to work, you may be entitled to compensation in the form of lost wages. In the event that you’ve lost a loved one who contributed significantly to your family’s finances, you may also be entitled to recover compensation to replace his or her income.

We’ve helped thousands of clients collect compensation for their injuries and we can do the same for you. Contact us today to schedule your free case review and to learn why we are the most trusted Aurora medical malpractice attorneys in Illinois.