Success Records

$19 Million Recovery – Medical Negligence/Birth Injury
Joseph A. Power Jr. Joseph W. Balesteri

F.M. v. A Local Community Hospital, Michael J. Riemaier, M.D., and Associates for Women’s Healthcare

(2021) Medical Malpractice: Mom was a gestational diabetic who was advised to deliver her son in the 39th week gestation by a maternal fetal medicine consultant. Her prenatal care was provided by a midwife who was scheduled to deliver her son. After monitoring, cervical ripening and induction, the mid-wife and her supervising obstetrician determined that no cervical change was occurring and mom could go home to return in a few days for another induction (unless she went into labor in the interim). Plaintiff’s experts believe it was unsafe for mom to go home in light of her gestational diabetic risks to herself and her son and his large size as well as abnormalities they identified on fetal heart tracings during the initial scheduled induction. When mom returned, she was allowed to labor for hours prior to birth despite additional abnormalities on fetal heart tracings. Baby was born with imaging suggestive of an older brain injury and an acute brain injury. The defense argued that injury to the fetal brain occurred in the first trimester and thereafter. The midwife and supervising obstetrician were not employees of the local community hospital. The minor has spastic cerebral palsy and a major seizure disorder.

$18.85 Million – Product / Aviation

Aviation/Product Liability: 20 year old male passenger in a small aircraft being piloted by a 20 year single male. Both individuals were traveling in the plane as part of the Aviation Program at their University. The aircraft became unflyable and crashed when the right cabin door completely opened during flight. The 20 year old pilot was burned over nearly 50% of his body due to the crash. The 20 year old passenger was severely burned and died days later. Due to jurisdictional concerns, causes of action had to be filed in several venues. Plaintiffs alleged that the locking system on the aircraft doors was defectively designed.

$18.75 Million Recovery — Medical Malpractice
Joseph A. Power Jr. Joseph W. Balesteri

C. v. Thorek Memorial Hospital

Medical Malpractice: The Plaintiff, 51 year old man, experienced quadriplegia following cervical disc surgery due to failure of nurses to communicate post-operative neurologic changes due to spinal cord compression to his neurosurgeon in a timely fashion.

$18.5 Million Recovery – Car Accident

Car Accident: G.C. was an extra in the movie production of Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. On September 1, 2010, G.C. was driving her own car along with 70-100 other vehicles on Cline Avenue in Hammond, Indiana during filming of the aforesaid movie. During filming, a stunt was performed in which an explosion followed by a stunt car being violently flipped over. The cable pulling the car broke free from the stunt car along with a large iron bracket, which was propelled across lanes of traffic into G.C.’s car windshield and then her head.

$18.5 Million Verdict — Medical Malpractice
Joseph A. Power Jr.

T. v. LaGrange Memorial Hospital

Medical Malpractice: A 36-year-old man became paralyzed on his left side as a result of a stroke. His family physician and emergency room doctor were found to be negligent in failing to diagnose subacute bacterial endocarditis. This is the largest medical negligence verdict in Illinois history and the largest in the U.S. in 1991 according to the National Law Journal. This verdict was reduced $2,238,141.00 for economic damages awarded above the present cash value of lost earnings and future attendant care needs found in the evidence or requested by plaintiff at trial. At the time this case was the largest verdict ever affirmed on appeal in Illinois.

JURY VERDICT: $18,500,000.00

Offer: $200,000.00

Affirmed on Appeal 92-2262 268 Ill.App.3d 1051, 645 N.E.2d 284 (1994).

$18 Million Recovery — Medical Malpractice, Brain Injury
Joseph A. Power Jr. Larry R. Rogers Sr.

R. v. Trinity Hospital

This case involved a pregnant mother who presented to Trinity Hospital shortly after midnight on January 1, 1995, with an elevated systolic blood pressure, edema and protein in her urine. The nurses as well as the physician, Dr. Everett A. White, failed to diagnose preeclampsia according to plaintiffs’ experts. At the time of her presentation to Trinity, the plaintiff’s mother was 37 weeks pregnant and in labor. She labored from approximately midnight on

January 1st until 12:45 p.m. when she had an eclamptic seizure. Her child, R., was delivered at 1:19 p.m. with very low APGARS and a cord blood gas indicating she suffered from hypoxia and ischemia. She remained depressed for approximately thirty-six more minutes due to the failure to adequately resuscitate her. As a result, R. sustained brain damage and is currently institutionalized.

The defendants denied that they were negligent, denied that R.’s mother was preeclamptic and instead have suggested she suffered a seizure as a result of an enterovirus which they claimed was found in the placenta. The defense alleged this enterovirus attacks newborns and, in fact, was responsible for aseptic meningitis evidenced by elevated white blood cell count in the cerebral spinal fluid of R. as well as abnormalities in the placenta. It was the defendants’ position that this enterovirus was the sole proximate cause of R.’s problem and was untreatable.

$17.5 Million Recovery- Medical Malpractice
Joseph A. Power Jr.

K. vs. Lutheran General Hospital, et al

Minor Plaintiff was born with a heart that was not formed properly. Doctors picked up an irregular heart beat prior to her birth. Plaintiff alleges Defendant doctors failed to properly admit her into the hospital and failed to properly monitor her resulting in her death at approximately 8 months of age.

$17.5 Million Recovery – Bicycle Accident
Joseph A. Power Jr. James Power

D.P. v. Sucha Singh, et al.

Founding partner, Joseph A. Power Jr., along with Attorneys James Power and Kurt Ensign, secured a $17.5 million recovery for the victim of a bike accident who suffered amputation and other serious injuries as a result of trucker negligence. The case will go down as the largest bike accident recovery in Illinois history to date.

$17.25 Million Recovery – Medical Malpractice
Joseph W. Balesteri Devon C. Bruce Joseph A. Power Jr.

Medical Malpractice/Brain Injury: Doctors at Christ Hospital Medical Center did not monitor M.’s anticoagulant treatment closely enough during rehabilitation treatment in 1998. She suffered a heart attack, which left her permanently brain damaged.

$17 Million Recovery — Medical Malpractice
Joseph W. Balesteri Joseph A. Power Jr.

On March 27, 1997, 8 month old K. had a malfunction of his ventricular shunt in place since one month of age for congenital hydrocephalus. He had undergone shunt revision in January. The revision was performed by a resident despite the family’s request for an attending neurosurgical physician. Upon surgical intervention in March, a portion of the shunt was found to have broken away and lodged in the frontal lobe. The shunt failure was attributed by Plaintiff to an improper surgical technique resulting in a cut and separation of the shunt. The child suffered severe brain damage as a result.