Stroke Misdiagnosis Lawsuit Results in $5.3M Settlement
Defendants in a wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit have agreed to pay $5.3 million to the husband of an Illinois woman who died following the misdiagnosis of a stroke.
The case was brought by Chris Medina of Carol Stream, Ill., whose wife died of a stroke at the age of 24 on December 27, 2006. The stroke misdiagnosis lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial in October. but the defendants, including Dr. Mark Kelly, of Winfield Radiology Consultants; Dr. Henry Echiverri, of Neuromed Clinic; and Central DuPage Hospital, agreed to settle the case instead.
The complaint alleged that the defendants failed to meet the standard of care for Samantha Medina, who went to DuPage Hospital more than two weeks before her death complaining of a headache and numbness. Doctors performed an MRI which indicated that Medina had a blood clotting condition that was restricting the flow of blood to the brain. However, the doctors either did not look at the MRI or did not recognize the condition, the lawsuit claimed.
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Learn MoreAccording to a report by Chicago Breaking News Center, the medical malpractice settlement was reached last month, avoiding the risks associated with trial in the case.
Failure to diagnose a stroke can delay treatment, potentially resulting in another more severe stroke, brain injury or other permanent disability for survivors.
In 2009, a study by researchers at Wayne State University found that the rate of stroke misdiagnosis increased when it came younger people under the age of 50. Misdiagnosis occurred in 14 percent of younger stroke victims, whose strokes were often thought to be vertigo, migraines or alcohol intoxication.
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clarenceNovember 30, 2011 at 11:53 pm
had stroke 10132010 had min stroke told my dr, show him my mri all he need have be paid for another one i have all my med record with mri 312-375-1645
JayOctober 31, 2010 at 7:00 pm
My 16 year old daughter died from a stroke in September. She had Downs Syndrome and was non-verbal. She suddenly collapsed after getting off the school bus one afternoon. She was rushed to the ER where we were told that she likely had a seizure and that she would be fine. We were told that she would be fine to go to school the next day. She had trouble during the night and arrived back at the ER[Show More]My 16 year old daughter died from a stroke in September. She had Downs Syndrome and was non-verbal. She suddenly collapsed after getting off the school bus one afternoon. She was rushed to the ER where we were told that she likely had a seizure and that she would be fine. We were told that she would be fine to go to school the next day. She had trouble during the night and arrived back at the ER at 5:00AM the next morning. The rescue personnel reported that she was exhibiting "stroke like symptoms". The ER doctors had her previous nights information and still didn't consider stroke as a cause for her symptoms. The CT scanner was broken and it took approx. 3 hours for her to get a CT scan. It then took an additional 3+ hours for them to read the results. It was a total of 13 hours before she received an MRI. The results of this MRI showed devastating stroke damage. We made the difficult decision to take her off life support and she died 8 hours later. The resident who was assigned to our case was arrogant and completely uninterested in our concerns. At one point he said..."You'll have to be patient, there are many people in the ER right now that are far sicker than your daughter...I have to go treat someone who is having a stoke". I should mention that this happened on a Friday morning while the ER was virtually empty. I've consulted a local Medical Malpractice attorney who agreed that that our story was terrible and could see from the medical records that the hospital had not met the standard of care one should expect from a Level One Trauma Center. However they declined to take the case because they couldn't prove the outcome would have been any different. All I know for sure is that they didn't even try. My daughter was treated differently because she had Downs Syndrome. I can assure you that if the President of the Hospital's child was in the ER that morning, with the same symptoms, she would have received a different level of care.