Medical Malpractice Cases Lawyers

Illinois Medical Malpractice Lawyers Take on the Challenge of Proving Pain and Suffering
By Emily Gleason

Illinois medical malpractice lawyers face long trials steeped in endless expert testimony, caveats in civil procedure and usually hundreds of thousands of dollars at risk, all the result of emotionally heart wrenching cases involving deaths, amputations, paralysis, brain damage, and almost always, pain and suffering. Among the critical roles that attorneys play in medical malpractice cases, the role of proving pain and suffering is one of the most challenging.

Paralyzed in silence on an operating table, a 53-year-old patient was unable to react when he experienced anesthesia awareness during open heart surgery. He suffered the pain of a bone saw cutting through his sternum and jolts of excruciation as doctors shocked his heart. He listened in agony to conversations among the surgical team that was completely oblivious of his anesthesia awareness. The patient was unable to move, scream or give any kind of indication that he was in pain. After surgery, the patient was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome. The patient hired a lawyer to raise pain and suffering as a cause of action in a medical malpractice case. Although there was no other cause of action involved in the case, the patient was awarded $262,500.

Most Illinois lawyers know that as of 2001, pain and suffering is no longer just an element of damages, but a cause of action in medical malpractice. It is every medical professional?™s duty to treat and effectively control pain. Inferring that pain is all in a patient?™s head is no longer a valid defense.